It is an age old tradition for many of us that we begin the new year with gusto and plans of making changes, yet by February we are very much into the new year and those plans have gone out of the window. This time last year my friend Menos Hiras and I were discussing this and so decided to take action to ensure that we both completed our goals. Menos are up with some brilliant ideas for this and having tried them out I can say that both Menos and I found great success with our 2019 new year’s resolutions, and here is how we did it.
Limiting Numbers
If you want to make changes in your life then make them, you shouldn’t need a new year to inspire you to change things that bother you. When it comes to making new year’s resolutions however you need to limit the amount that you make. There is a temptation to use this time of year to improve all aspects of your life, the fact of the matter however is that in doing so you will generally fail on most counts. Menos and I made 2 resolutions each, and we achieved them both, if you limit the number you can focus harder on them.
Planning It
A simple way that Menos thought up to ensure we achieved our goals was to actually plan what achieving them would look like. For example I wanted to lose some weight, but Menos reminded me of the importance of setting out a clear plan, how much would I lose, when by, how I would go about it and potential obstacles were all important aspects to look at which helped me to actually achieve it. Once you have your resolutions, sit down and work out exactly how you will achieve them and most importantly, how you will measure them.
Going Public
Although Menos and I knew what each other were trying to achieve, we also found that telling people about what we wanted to do was important. Telling your friends and family that you are aiming to make a change or to achieve something adds some positive peer pressure which help you to reach your goals. In my case for example, even when I wanted to cheat and eat something which I shouldn’t, I knew that my family or friends would make a comment about me trying to lose weight, and that was enough to keep me on track.
Getting Started
One of the key reasons why many fail their resolutions is because they fail to get started in the first days of January and before they know it they are in the middle of the month, and they’ve lost that steam that they had when the year ended. Even if you think that January the 1st may be a day of tiredness of even a hangover, this is your start date. Don’t miss a single chance to get started and make the changes that you want to, the earlier you begin, the better your chances are of success, something which Menos and I can both attest to.
