Avoid New Year’s Resolutions – Set Goals Instead!

If you want to be more productive this January – set goals instead of resolutions.

Setting yourself a resolution may sound more exciting, but grand ambitions such as “I’m going to be chocolate-free for a year!” often fail by the end of January. This year, try setting yourself smaller goals. If you’d like to cut down on chocolate, try telling yourself things like no chocolate after 3pm or I’m going to eat only sugar-free chocolate this month. Or, if you’re determined to truly give-up something, try narrowing the vision: aim to give it up for through one month first, instead of picturing the whole year. If that goes well, then you can try the next month. Breaking down the bigger picture makes your dream less intimadating and much more achievable.

Another way to ensure success with your ambition is to – believe it or not – embrace any failure. If your plan doesn’t go as you pictured, don’t give up hope! Learn from the experience. Don’t tell yourself well I failed, might as well go back to eating chocolate whenever I want again! Simply try again the next day. After all, your overall goal is to better yourself. It doesn’t really matter if you fail once or twice (or even a few times). If you can achieve your goal 24 days out of a 31, then you’ve already improved. You have actually achieved the change you wanted to see!  So be SMART:

S - Specific 

M - Measurable 

A - Achievable

R - Relevant

T - Time-based

Start by writing the big picture; I want to be on time for everything this year. Then achieve some milestones; I will be 10 minutes early for everything this week. Recognise your obstacles; I need to start getting ready 15 minutes earlier then I usually do. Visualise your success; You can achieve this and you will! Then work on making it a reality and reward yourself with a pat on the back once that first week is through. Well done! You got through this week, now to just do the same next week…

As you can see, by setting ourselves realistic, smaller goals, we can reach our over-all desire in a much more manageable way. As many wise folks have said, the first step is always the hardest...

So when people ask you what your resolution is this year, tell them you’re being S.M.A.R.T and setting goals instead!