If you are like most people, you probably go through the annual ritual of making New Year’s resolutions.  But how often do you succeed in keeping them?  Making new resolutions each year is a positive thing, as long as you don’t fall into the trap of making resolutions with no intention of following through.  The end of the year is a good time to review what you did in the past twelve months, celebrate your accomplishments, learn from your mistakes, and create a new set of goals for the New Year.  In this article we will provide ten tips for how to be successful with your New Year’s resolutions as well as provide some suggestions for setting goals for next year.

Making New Year’s resolutions is fun.  This is a time when you start making new plans in the hope that things will be better in the next year, and that you will finally achieve all those goals you’ve been trying to achieve for years.  But if you really want to succeed in achieving your New Year’s resolution, there are some goal setting techniques that can help you get there:

1. Understand in your own mind why this resolution in important to you.  Is this something that you are willing to make sacrifices for or is it just a nice to have? If this is something that is really important to you, write it down. 
2. Visualize yourself accomplishing your New Year’s resolution.  What does if feel like?  How do you look?  What are people saying about you?
3. Start behaving as if you had already accomplished your resolution.
4. Make your resolution specific.  Instead of saying “I will lose weight next year”, say “I will lose 3 pounds a month for the next five months, in order to achieve my goals of losing 15 pounds.”
5. Make your resolution measurable and keep track of it.  Don’t just say “I will work towards improving my financial situation”.   Say “I will increase my net worth by 10% next year”.  Then keep track of how well you are doing and make adjustments along the way.  If at the end of month 3 your net worth has only increased by 1%, you have to make changes in order to achieve your 10% goal.
6. Make your resolution realistic.  If your resolution is unrealistic you will get discouraged and you will lose self-confidence.
7. Celebrate small victories.  If you goal is to lose 15 pounds, reward yourself with something you enjoy after losing the first 3 pounds.
8. Learn from your mistakes.  If you get off track in achieving your resolutions, stop and think about what you have done wrong and make adjustments to get back on track.
9. Build a support mechanism.  Share you resolution with people you trust to give you encouragement when you hit a bump on the road.
10. Don’t give up.  You will probably have some set backs in your pursuit.  When this happens, realize that it is part of the experience.  Don’t dwell on these set backs.  Take a breather if you need to, but get back to your pursuit as soon as you can.

If you want to be more successful in the New Year, but you are not quite clear on what parts of your life you should improve, here are some things you may want to consider:

• How is your health?  Perhaps you can start the year with a check-up.  If you have any health related issues that you need to work on, such as lowering your cholesterol, reducing blood pressure, or quitting smoking, make this a top priority.
• Do you need to lose weight?  Most Americans do.  In order to be successful with your weight loss, you need a program that combines a healthy diet and exercise.   There are two related posts that you may want to review:
• Everything You Need to Know About Living a Healthy Lifestyle
• How Physical Fitness Influences Success
• How are you doing financially?
• Do you need to reduce debt?  Put together an effective budget.  See the article “How much should you save?”
• Are you maximizing the returns on your investments?   See the article “Stock investments – achieving high returns while managing risks”.
• Do you know how well your net worth is doing?  See the article How much are you worth?
• Do you have a skill you’ve always wanted to develop, like learning to play an instrument or learning a new language?  Why not get started in the New Year?
• Is there a place you’ve always wanted to visit but never made specific plans to go there?  Perhaps a trip abroad?  Make the plans now.
• Would you like to spend more time and resources helping others?  Set some specific goals on what and how you are going to do it and write it down.
• Are you ready to change your job?  Or perhaps you would like to start a small business?  Make it happen in the upcoming year.

You have probably already considered some of these things, and most likely you have some additional goals you would like to pursue.  Prioritize your goals.  Select the ones that will have the most significant impact in your life. Chose 3-5 goals and follow the 10 tips suggested above for your personal success.

Happy New Year!

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