Can’t stick to your New Year’s Resolutions?

About those New Year’s Resolutions

It is very easy to pick a New Year’s resolution and tell everybody what it is and it always sounds like a great idea. In reality though, most people decide on a resolution without ever thinking about how they can accomplish it. I call that ‘lip service’ and many of us are great at that!

Excuses

I know, I know, we all are great at convincing ourselves of why we can’t do something. If we spent the same amount of time thinking about why we can do something, the way we spend our time convincing ourselves why we can’t , we would be alright. Instead we convince ourselves of all the ‘reasons’ we can’t do it. Now there are a number of reasons why you can’t stick to the resolution that you set for yourself. Some of the most popular reasons, we tend to come up with are;

1. I just don’t have time
2. I can’t afford it
3. It’s too much work
4. I don’t know how to do it or where to start

Let’s face it, those are not ‘reasons’ they are EXCUSES. Stop making excuses for why you cannot stick to your new year’s resolution. Remember something very important, you are in control of your own destiny. ANYTHING you tell yourself you want to do, can be done, if you are willing to put in the time and dedication to getting it done!

The #1 Reason

The #1 reason you can’t stick to your New Year’s resolutions is because you do not have a PLAN! It doesn’t matter what the resolution is, the only reason you can’t stick to it is because you skipped the planning phase. Remember the saying ‘ If you fail to PLAN, you plan to FAIL’. This is a saying that will never die. If you are serious about sticking to your New Year’s resolution you need to make a plan and stick to it.

The Plan

Formulating a plan may sound like work and to some it may sound impossible, but I believe in planning. Planning allows you to set a course and a direction to accomplish your goals. Now, I’m not saying that if you set a goal everything will run smoothly and things won’t happen that will cause you to change things around as you go along. What I am suggesting, is that if you have a plan and LIFE happens, like it often will, you may have to take a right turn, where you had planned to take a left… BUT… when you pass that hurdle you will still have a clear direction as to where you want to go and it will be much easier to get back on track.

Set Your Plan in Motion

I am going to give you 5 easy steps for setting a plan, that will help you to stick to those New Year’s resolutions.

1. Set an Overall Goal

The first thing you need to do is, set an overall goal. This goal has to be realistic. Don’t set goals that are outside of your reach because they will discourage you when you cannot accomplish them. Let’s use the example of saving money.

The Overall goal would be:

I want to save $12,000 over the next three years.

That’s the focal point. It’s the end result. It’s where you want to end up at the end of this plan. Now you have a vision.

2. Set smaller goals to help you achieve the overall goal

You have set your vision, now you need to build it. Break the overall goal down into smaller goals that will help you to get from month to month or year to year whichever is easiest for you. Using the same example;

Yearly Goals;

I need to save $4000 a year.

Monthly goals;

I need to save $333 a month.

Setting these smaller monthly or yearly goals will help you to further organize yourself and build a framework for how you are going to accomplish them.

3. Make a ‘How to’ List

This is a list of how you intend to accomplish those monthly or yearly goals. These will be the tasks or activities that are at the very heart of the plan and will help you to stay focused. For example;

‘How to’ list

• In order to save that money every month, I need to decrease my expenses. I will decrease my expenses by;
  • Taking my lunch everyday to work
  • Eating out less
  • Setting a weekly spending budget and sticking to it
  • Getting rid of any unnecessary expenses

4. Create weekly tasks list

• This list will stem from your ‘How To’ list, and will be related to each point in that list.
  • Meal plan for the week so that I have my lunch packed for each day.
  • Designate one day out of the month where I will treat myself to a nice  meal in my favorite restaurant
  • Either take the cash out every week or transfer the money every week to a separate account and when that money is finished that’s it for my weekly spending budget.
  • Clean up my expenses, figure out what expenses I have that I can do without and get rid of them (You may have a subscription for something that you are hardly using, but it’s coming out of your account every month)

5. Create a spreadsheet of your monthly progress

Create a spreadsheet to help you stay on track. This will also help you to realize your savings/goals and serve as encouragement because you will be able to actually see the progress you are making with your weekly task and towards your overall goal!

Let’s Do It

Giving up is really easy to do and many times we look for the easy way out. One of my favorite motivational speakers is Dr. Eric Thomas, and he says “ Your strength is in your routine”. That means that what you do everyday, becomes who you are. So who do you want to be? The best way to accomplish your goals is to make a plan and stick to it!

Tips:

• Writing things down helps to reinforce them. Write down your entire plan and put it somewhere , that will allow you to have access to it at all times. Put it somewhere where you have to see it every day.
• Motivate yourself. Every day before you start your day and get caught up in the world of social media and work, read an article, listen to a podcast,  or watch a video that talks about your overall goal and gives advice or just encouragement. You will be surprised what that time invested in motivating yourself will do for you and how it will make you feel.