Monday, January 01, 2007

How to Keep New Years Resolutions

I came across this post at Lifehacker and followed the links... Useful.
Identify the right goals

New Year’s Resolutions are supposed to be goals that you can achieve in one year. So “quit smoking” or “lose 20 lbs” are definitely a good example. However, “become a black belt in karate” is NOT a good NYR if your martial arts training up to this point has been limited to watching “Enter the Dragon” on the couch.

Add actions to goals

Without following through, NYR’s are just empty words. You must put in effort to see results. You must come up with a concrete plan of action for every NYR on your list. If you write your NYG as something vague like “lose weight”, you’re not going to be too motivated to follow through. What exactly is it that you’re supposed to do? Sit and wait until the weight is lost? Keep on running a-la Forrest Gump, until the desired weight is reached? And since your sub consciousness hasn’t received a direct order, it’s going to stuff that ‘lose weight’ comment to the back of your brain.

Remind yourself regularly of your resolutions

New Year’s day is going to come and go, and so will your mood and determination that you had while creating your NYR’s. How do you stay on track? How do you keep your NYR’s fresh in your head, and follow them all year?

First, you have to put the list you just wrote someplace you can easily find it. File it under “New Year’s Resolutions, 2009”, put it in your wallet, or anywhere else that you like, but make sure that if you get the urge to see it in June, you can easily find it.
(link)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

That writer made some good points, for those who make NYR. I don't, but the points (s)he made apply to a decision I made in October to change something that I had whined, moaned and ranted about over a period of a few years. And yes, I made the decision specific enough, I'm taking the necessary action to achieve it, and I'm reminded several times a day that I need to stick to it!

Good post.

Anonymous said...

Without following through, NYR’s are just empty words.

That's exactly why I've become to consider New Year's Resolutions to be nothing more than mental spam. People's personal planning usually end up as vaporous as the promises from some Nigerian Prince.

Bryonm said...

"mental spam"--- I like that. Great comment...