New Year’s Resolutions are famously difficult to keep. Every year thousands of people promise themselves that they are going to give up smoking, get in better shape or finally get around to going on a diet and every year thousands of people fail to follow through. Well this year you are going to have some help.
We are giving you five tips to ensure that no matter what health-related New Year’s resolution you make you will have the greatest possible chance of seeing it through. But be warned, some of these tips are pretty intense and they are certainly not for the week-hearted!
Tip 1 – Make It Achievable
This is a very obvious tip but it is one that some people don’t really consider when making their New Year’s Resolutions. In order to gauge whether or not your goals are actually achievable you are going to write down the steps that you will take to manifest them.
Let’s take an example of a 40 year old person who makes a New Year’s Resolution to lose 50 pounds. If that person thinks that, they are going to easily lose that much weight and get back the body they had when they were 25, obviously this is a goal that in 90% of people is completely unachievable. Why? Because it places an immense amount of immediate stress and targets a much more long-term goal.
However, setting a more realistic short-term goal that focuses on losing the first 10 pounds, is a great resolution, and is much more user-friendly and realistic. The smart approach is to set both long-term goals, say the 50 pounds, with a set of short-term goals as stepping-stones to get there.
Write down the steps that will get you to your goal and be honest with yourself when considering whether or not you are actually going to be able to achieve it.
Tip 2 – Daily Intention Setting & Self-Hypnosis
Once you have decided on exactly what your resolution is, you are going to remind yourself of it every day, and you are also going to program yourself for success. Write down what your goal is and post it in at least five places around your home so that you see it and be reminded of it every day. This will help you to stay on track and not forget what you promised yourself you would achieve.
Also, every single morning of every single day you are going to visualise success. You can do this in bed when you wake up or you can spend 5 minutes doing this once you have gotten out of bed and organised all of the morning tasks to be done. Find a spot where you can be alone for 5 minutes and visualise yourself having already achieved your goal.
1. Feel the feelings of accomplishment and happiness at having achieved your goal.
2. Imagine how you will feel and think at that point in your life
3. Make the visualisation extremely rich in sensation, meaning imagine all the senses at work, what you will hear, what you will see and how you will feel, imagine how proud you can be letting everybody know that you achieved your goal and imagine how happy other people will be for you
This is an extremely powerful way of programming your brain for success because it will begin to believe that you have already achieved your goal and it will transform your body and thoughts in accordance with that.
Tip 3 – Join Forces
Another way to help you to achieve your goal is to join forces with a friend or family member who wants to make either the same or a similar New Year’s Resolution. Being able to offer each other support and encouragement will give you more motivation to stick to your plans and achieve success.
Just make sure that the person you choose to join forces with has a high level of motivation to achieve their goal too and you will guarantee that you both get the support you need.
Tip 4 – Tell Everyone What You are Going to Do
Tell everyone that you know what your plan is. Doing this will mean that if you fail your resolution you are going to have to explain to everyone that you know, one by one, how you failed, and no-one likes to admit defeat. Make the thought of failure so uncomfortable that you have no choice but to continue working towards your goal.
Tip 5 – Make a Bet
Once you have given yourself a realistic target, you are going to find your loudest and most obnoxious friend, then you are going to make a monetary bet with this person stating that you will stick to your resolution and achieve your aim, or else you will have to pay him/her $100.
This is a sure-fire way of boosting your motivation however, make sure that the amount of money you bet is going to cause you to want to avoid losing the bet. If $100 is not a lot of money to you then try $500 or even $1000.
The fact that you made this bet with your most obnoxious friend will make you want to achieve your goal even more, because no one wants to lose a bet that they will have to hear about repeatedly every time you meet with that person.
Another way of doing this is to give a trusted friend or family member the money up front and tell that if you fail your resolution then they can keep the money; otherwise, they have to give it back to you when you achieve success.
Bottom Line
So there you have five simple but powerful tips to help you keep your New Year’s Resolutions. Put all of them to work and you will guarantee that you have the highest possible amount of motivation for staying on track.
This time, keeping your New Year’s Resolution is going to be easy as pie, just keep telling yourself that and if you believe in yourself enough, you will guarantee that it will come true!
