How to Make Your New Years Resolution a Success

In reality, a New Years resolution isn’t much different than any other resolution made on any other day. But still nearly everyone takes this time to set a new goal. Actually, the goal set is often the same as the previous year since people seldom follow through with their New Years resolution. Interestingly, not achieving that specific goal each year is making the following achievement that much more difficult due to so many subconscious past ‘failures’. For this reason it is very important to follow through with your goal setting, and here are a few extremely beneficial tips on how to do so.

Always Think About Your Goal

Thinking about what you want is the first step to achievement — after identifying what you want of course. You can put up memory triggers around the house such as post-it notes, computer backgrounds, pictures, books, or anything that will make you think of the goal you want. You could even place an object on the floor and give it a hidden meaning related to the goal you desire. Each time you walk past this object, you will notice it and therefore think about what you want. Do not think about what you don’t want, think about what you do want. For example, think ‘I want to be thin’ instead of ‘I don’t want to be fat’.

Avoid Anything that Says “You can’t do it”

While the subconscious negative thoughts stemming from all the past ‘failures’ are making things more difficult, you certainly don’t need to surround yourself with other things or people that amplify that feeling of failure. It is all too often that we set our own goal only for our closest friends and family members to knock us down. It is unfortunate that this happens, but it is very much a reality.

While you can’t always completely avoid these people, and probably often don’t want to, you can avoid getting into conversations that lead to the put down of your goals. This negative influence around us is a huge factor in why so many people discontinue their resolution so early, and while it often seems difficult to solve, you can do it if you have true determination.

Set a Goal You Know You Can Achieve

Another very common mistake in goal setting is setting the bar too high. We’ve been conditioned more or less to aim high and shoot for the stars, and while that kind of thinking can be fantastic, it usually leads to too far-future, difficult goal setting. A resolution of losing 50 pounds may sound better than a resolution of losing 10 pounds, but what if you don’t achieve the goal? You have just made a subconscious negative ‘you can’t do it’ in your head, and that will work against your next goal.

If you do achieve the loss of 10 pounds, however, it has just been proven that a you can really achieve what you set out to do. Once you achieve that goal, you will feel so good that you’ll set a goal to lose another 10 pounds, and you know you can do it. It is better to aim for 10 and lose 12 than aim for 30 and lose 25.

Unfortunately, these are very real reasons goals are not achieved. People all too often read these kinds of messages and then experience a surge of inspiration and motivations, but before the next day arrives that feeling vanishes. Constantly think about your goal and consistently know you can do it, because you can.