Tips for Achieving Your New Year's Resolutions

Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to stick to your New Year's resolutions? 

You're not alone. Most people have a hard time staying committed to their New Year's resolutions. Why? Because goals are the key to success, not resolutions. And successful goals are not possible without a strategy for achieving them!

So, I thought I'd give you some helpful tips for achieving your New Year’s resolutions starting with outlining your goals.

Create Goals in the Key Areas of Your Life
I encourage my clients to create goals for their career, health and well-being, relationships, personal growth, and anything else that they feel is important to them! 

Every area of our life is integrated, so when you take care of yourself and are fulfilled in all areas of your life, it's much easier to achieve your BIG goals in life. Remember, you are your most important asset, so please make your well-being your number one priority. 

Envision Your Future
When you develop a vision for your future, you can create amazing results!

Imagine you are in the future one year from now, and you have accomplished your goals. What is the end result you want to achieve? Be specific. What will you feel, see, hear, etc.? How will you know when you have accomplished your goal? What will achieving it allow you to do? 

Be sure to write your vision for your future in present tense and in positive terms.

Know YOUR "Why"
Our actions will determine whether or not we achieve our goals. How motivated we are will determine whether or not we take action. 

Discovering your "why" behind your goals will be the fuel to your motivation. Take time to get clear on your reason for wanting to achieve this goal. Make it pull at your heartstrings –– make it juicy!

Ask yourself, "Why is this objective important to me? What will it give me? What am I really committed to? What will achieving this get for me or allow me to do?"

Set Yourself Up for Success
Create an awareness of what skills and resources will support you in achieving your goals. 

Skills: What skills do you have? What do you want to learn? What do you want to delegate?

Resources: What resources do you have? Who do you know that can help you? What resources do you want to develop?

Create a Plan
Using your future vision, break down your goals into specific, clear, and intentional results. Answering, "What do I want to achieve and by when?"

To stay on track, it's important to determine clear milestones to help you reach your goal. Having a clear timeline and well-defined steps will allow you to evaluate your plan, manage your progress, and make corrections as needed.

Milestones: Milestones a month or less apart will be beneficial in making sure you stay on track to accomplishing your goal.

Action Plan: What actions will you commit to that will help you achieve your next milestone?

Practices and Habits: What activities and habits would support you in reaching your objective?
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Incentives: Attach a small, medium, or large reward to each milestone. The bigger the milestone, the bigger the reward!

Support and Accountability 
Share your goals with the people in your life that will encourage you and lift you up.

Implement a weekly appointment with yourself to check in to see where you are in relation to the goals you set for the week. Ask yourself, "What's working? What's not working? What needs to shift?"

Consider partnering with an accountability partner or hiring a coach to keep you on track with your commitments and goals. Having a good accountability partner can help you make amazing progress toward your goals, helping you stay on track toward creating your vision. In addition, it gives you a chance to share about recent wins, talk through challenges and come up with new strategies.

You'll be amazed at how much you'll achieve when you shift your mindset from making New Year's resolutions to making yearly goals aligned with your vision!