Things You'll Need:
- A list of New Year's resolutions in different categories (if you have more than one area you wish to improve)
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Step 1
Choose one of your New Year's resolutions.
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Step 2
Be specific about what you want to accomplish with this resolution. For instance, if it is weight loss, how much do you want to lose? If it is establishing an emergency savings fund, how much? Making your resolutions specific helps you with the next step...writing down the steps to get there.
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Step 3
Write down all the steps that it will take to accomplish your resolution. This is especially important for resolutions like eating healthier, exercising more, spending less, etc. because they often require multiple steps. Taking it a step at a time makes the overarching resolution easier to envision, attain, and leaves some room for well...life happening. For instance, if you want to lose weight and you have never tried it, you might want to start with first exploring healthy ways to lose weight (less you be tempted by a lot of unhealthy fad diets) that are difficult to maintain and leave you feeling hopeless.
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Step 4
Think of a creative way to reward yourself after accomplishing each step in your resolution (i.e. not dessert if weight loss is a resolution, perhaps a night to yourself doing what you like to do most)
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Step 5
Write down a plan for sustaining your resolution once you have written down all the steps. This is critical! How many of us have heard of people that have accomplished a resolution, say significant weight loss, only to see them gain back the weight (often more than what was lost)? Why go through all the work if there is not similar effort put into sustaining the resolution. Without a maintenance plan, we'll all be creating the same resolutions for 2010!
