How often have you decided to do something, but failed to follow through? Don’t feel bad. We all do this. The problem is that failing to follow through makes us feel ike a failure. 

You don’t want that.

New Years eve is the worst time for this. You sprinkle resolutions around liberally, as though they’re fairy dust. Then, the resolutions disappear, leaving no evidence they ever existed. (Unlike the real dust that tends accumulates around the house.)

This is the problem with resolutions. You set them, and you forget them.

Actually, you set them, you try to make progress over the first few weeks or days (or hours!), then you give up and berate yourself for your lack of willpower or perseverance.

The thing about resolutions is that making them does not guarantee success. Just like buying a gym membership doesn’t get you in shape (I know this from experience!). You have to actually go to the gym and do the work. Tiresome but true.

All resolutions, whether they are made for the New Year or otherwise, require certain things for success. You have to actually plan for success.

So here’s a no-fail guide to following through on your resolutions:

  1. Define exactly what you want. So, ‘lose some weight’ is not good enough. Define exactly how many kilos you want to lose.
  2. Set your deadline. Specify when you will achieve this goal. Ideally, this deadline should be challenging but achievable, so you keep moving towards your target.
  3. Schedule it. Schedule when you are going to work on this thing, or when you are going to check your progress. If your goal is weight loss, you might want to schedule your exercise sessions, and also schedule when you’re going to check in on your goals (i.e. weekly). Don’t forget that you can change your world in as little as ten minutes a day.
  4. Persevere. Don’t give up at the first hurdle, or the first set back, even if you have to renegotiate your deadline. Anyone who achieves anything worthwhile has to persevere. If you got a flat tyre on your way home, you wouldn’t give up and stay where you are, would you? No. You would do whatever you needed to do to get home to your family. The same applies to anything else you want to achieve.

So there you have it, a recipe for successfully setting – and achieving – your resolutions. 

 

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