How to Make New Year's Resolutions

Member

By Kelly Metz
User-Submitted Article

Article Rating: (5 Ratings)

Make New Year's Resolutions

As the new-year approaches, it's time to start thinking about those New Year's Resolutions. Follow these simple steps to choose relevant, yet attainable goals for the coming year.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Paper and Pencil or a Word Processor.
Some quiet time to reflect.

Step 1

Begin by determining what areas of your life you want to focus on for the coming year. Physical? Mental? Spiritual? Finances? Relationships? You might choose to work on one goal in each of these areas. If you feel your life is really lacking in one area in particular, you might choose to focus on that one area for your New Year's Resolutions. If focusing on just one area, 3 - 5 goals for that one area may be appropriate.
Step 2

Once you have decided which area, or areas of your life you want to focus on for the coming year, it's time to write your resolutions. Don't write too many. Three to Five is a good number to focus on. Even just one is OK if it's a biggie! Writing a small number of goals certainly doesn't mean that you won't accomplish more than these in the coming year, but you need to have a small number to be able to focus your efforts, track your progress and ensure ultimate success.
Step 3

Review the goals you have written and make sure they are attainable. Revise them if necessary until you have between one to five goals that you are motivated to focus on and that you can realistically achieve in one year. Here are some examples of possible goals for each of the areas listed in step one. Physical: Ride my bike for 30 minutes, at least 3 times a week. Mental: Add to my foreign language acquisition by learning at least 200 new Spanish vocabulary words. Spiritual: Internalize 52 new Bible verses by memorizing one per week. Finances: Build up and maintain a one thousand dollar balance in my savings account. Relationships: Spend more quality time with my kids by having at least one fun and educational family outing or activity per month (i.e. library, zoo, museum, science center, cooking a special meal together, etc...).