A Gift to Yourself: 7 Tips for Making New Year's Resolutions and Keeping Them
A Gift To Yourself
Good Bye Last Year, Hello New Year
Every year with the closing of the holidays, comes the excitement of welcoming a new year full of promising new opportunities. It's time to gift yourself with ideas for improvement. It’s a time to reflect on the previous year, taking note of what worked and what didn’t, what made you happy and what didn’t. It’s a time to look at improvements that need to be made, and to create that wonderful resolution list of how to make things better in the New Year.
7 Tips to Make Your New Year’s Resolutions and Keep Them
1. Keep in mind that New Year’s resolutions shouldn’t be made just to improve ourselves once a year. These resolutions need to be worked on a little each day throughout the year.
2. Keep your resolutions to a minimum. Choose 3 to 5 quality goals instead of making a list of more. More than 5 becomes overwhelming and it is likely that you won’t attain any of them. You can always add more later on if you wish, as you see accomplishments with the first ones.
3. Of the 3 to 5 resolutions, make a couple that are attainable within short periods of time. You’ll feel more inspired to work on the others when you see results.
4. Make resolutions that have monthly goals instead of just annual ones. For instance, if your plan is to lose 20 pounds this year, then break it down into a reasonable 2 pounds per month and what you will do each month to attain that goal.
5. Keep in mind that general goals are harder to meet than personal ones. Perhaps you write I’m going to be more organized this year. O.K., but more organized where and how? Personalize it. I’m going to spend time every day (whatever time you can actually give it) to sort through the mail, put important dates on my calendar, and put important papers where they belong. Or, every Saturday morning I’m going to tackle one drawer, closet or room until I remove all unwanted and unneeded clutter.
6. Keep your resolution list in front of you to see every day. It can be kept on the refrigerator, on your vision board, attached to your computer, where ever you will see it and be reminded of what you plan to accomplish.
7. Don’t forget to reward your accomplishments as you meet your goals. This need not be monetary, but as simple as giving yourself a pat on the back.
The End of Next Year
Remember that resolutions are easy to make, but are not always so easy to keep. Be sure that your goals have steps and an action plan on how to accomplish them. By year’s end next year, you should be able to reflect back and recognize with a sense of pride that you’ve been accountable to your resolutions and smile at your achievements.
