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Step 1
Choose carefully what you wish to achieve this year. If possible, try to make it a lifetime commitment instead of a one-year plan. For example, if you want to lose weight, tell yourself that you're not doing it for that purpose, but more to be healthy. To live longer. To experience a life without medical worries. Willing reinforcements help.
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Step 2
As above, losing weight is going to be the most popular resolution. That's why fitness centers target their mass marketing plans at the end of the year. Joining one should not be a problem, but keeping up and maintaining the membership should also not be a hassle. Some visit the first few months and eventually drop out. Tell yourself that you've already paid for this. It doesn't help that the gym is usually filled with hot guys and girls with beautiful semi-naked bodies. Eye candy should not just be for the taking - they should be for the inspiration.
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Step 3
Saving money is next. Americans are not known for their prudent expenditure patterns. Try to put aside some money for your 401K, if you don't have one already. If not, then stop buying that expensive sweater and pay off your credit card bills instead. Be a realistic consumer. If you have it already, you probably won't need it.
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Step 4
Drop the following words from your vocabulary - Prada, Gucci, Hermes. You will also shed pounds of worry from your wallet. Your self-esteem will rise knowing that brand names doth not a perfect person maketh. Go for reliable name brands such as Gap or H&M. Stylish and usually in-season.
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Step 5
Be kind. The world runs on fossil fuel and kindness. One will eventually expire. Let the other runneth over instead. True, this does not qualify as a resolution. But think what would happen if the world is suffused by such - No one would then think badly of one's dress or physical appearance.
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Step 6
Last but not least - Rewind. Look at your past few years' worth of resolutions. Examine them intricately. Try to find out where you've failed and why. What was the cause of the distraction? Was it a relationship? Was it the discovery of a new dessert (I hate you Pinkberry!)? Or was it a death in the family? As such, make adjustments. Change your outlook. Make sure you don't repeat the same mistakes. Plans can and usually do go awry, but we sometimes have to make the most of them.
