In the last blog post, I suggested that you would almost certainly fail to keep your new year resolutions – but that short term failure should be expected and planned for so that you can keep going in the long term. Well here are five more tips for achieving your resolutions.
1. Find a purpose – I mean something beyond the surface reason. Going to the gym ‘to get fit’ is too wooly. Getting fit to be able to run around with your kids without getting out of breath is better.
2. Share your resolutions with others – telling other people what you plan to do makes you more accountable. And don’t be afraid to ask people for help.
3. Write a plan – putting your (realistic) plans onto paper makes it seem more ‘official’. Share this with someone (see above).
4. Include ‘if… then…’ in your plan – as it’s likely you won’t achieve your resolutions smoothly, make a list of what might go wrong, and what you plan to do if that happens.
5. Make a list of all the great things that will happen when you achieve your aims. You can use this to motivate yourself when you’re wavering.
Of course, you can use these tips for just about anything you plan to do, not just for New Year. Let’s call it the Three ‘P’s approach - purpose, planning, people.
Now all I have to do is make some resolutions…