10 Strategies for Making It Through Your 2010 New Year’s Resolution

Hello and I hope everybody had a happy new year yesterday! Since it’s the beginning of the year, I wanted to talk about some effective strategies for really making your new year’s resolutions happen this year, if you happened to have made one for yourself. These are some of the fundamental strategies to goal setting, but if you can get this down, you will be able to reach your resolution by Jan. 1, 2011.

All successful people who have reached their goal, whether it was losing more weight or making more money, have used these techniques and principles. But there is a different between knowing and applying. I hope you not only just read what follows, but actually apply them to whatever it is that your are trying to go for before the year flies by again. The first of these techniques is to…

Be Specific

Let’s say your goal was to lose weight. Rather than have a vague new year’s resolutions, make it more specific so you can actually measure your results. Instead of saying, “I want to lose this fat by next year” you want to say something such as “I want to lose 50 pounds by January 1, 2011” or I want to weigh (insert desired amount of weight) by January 1, 2011. The reason you want to be specific is so that you can mark down your process and track it down during each week of the months of the year. This is so you have a clear idea to whether or not you are making it, and if not, you will know that you need to push harder.

Figuring Out Why

Let’s say you were a heavy drinker in 2009 and you wanted to quit alcohol for an entire year. You have to figure out your why. Why are you going to do that? Your why has to be strong enough so whenever you look back at why you are quitting alcohol, you feel motivated to doing so. Maybe your reason for quitting is because you were tired of getting wasted every other day, maybe your reason for quitting is something health related such as alcohol was destroying your liver, or maybe your reason for quitting is just to maintain a healthier life and to be more productive during the day. Whatever it is, you have to make sure your why gives you enough desire to override anything kind of excuse that you might have later in the future.

Visualization

Let’s say you wanted to be a calmer person this year. This is actually quite simple if you just envision yourself doing so. The mind cannot tell the difference between what’s going on inside of it to what’s the reality outside of it. If you constantly envision yourself becoming the person that you want to be, eventually your subconscious mind will think they you are that person. Actors do this. Athletes do this. Speakers do this. Anybody can do it, but you must learn to relax, close your eyes, and create a picture or a short movie scene of yourself played out in your mind. The goal of visualization is not only to see it, but to feel it. Once you start to feel whatever it is that you want, in this case become a calmer person, eventually you’ll naturally become calmer without even realizing it.

Remind Yourself

Let’s say your new year’s resolution was to become a more positive person this year; give yourself reminders everywhere. You might want to go as far as buying a pack of yellow sticky notes and putting in places such as on bathroom mirrors (so you can see them as you’re brushing your teeth), on your room door (so you can see in when you come into our room or when you walk out), and by somewhere in your office (so you can see it every time you’re working). Another good ways is whatever new year’s resolution you have, write it down on a 3 x 5 index card and put in your pocket so at random times during the day, you can reach down there and remind yourself of it. Doing this constantly remind your subconscious mind of it and eventually it will carry itself out into reality.

Believe in Yourself

Let’s say your new year’s resolution was to find a girlfriend, a boyfriend, a potential spouse, or just get into a romantic relationship with somebody. You may not be the most attractive person on earth, you may not be the sexiest person on earth, and you may not have the most charming personality on earth, but one thing you do need to have is that you have to believe in yourself enough to do anything, and stuff will seriously start to magically happen when you do. Constantly tell yourself that if I get out there every day and meet somebody new without anybody’s approval but my own, eventually somebody will open up, talk to me, and like me for who I am. Always believe in yourself. You’re just as good as anybody else on the planet despite where you come from.

Don’t Be Afraid of Fear

Let’s say already had a relationship going on, but you spend most of your time with your girlfriend or boyfriend (I’m sure you know a couple of these people). Now you want to actually have a group of friends so you can talk about more than just everything you know about your lover, but the thing is you have forgotten how to communicate with other people! Well, the fastest way to do this is just to start talking to other people who are as scared of talking to people like you are. You may feel anxiety coming up whenever that thought comes up, but you can’t be afraid of fear. Fear is not real and you have to be able to face fear but tackling it instead of avoiding it. The more you practice talking to random people, the more you will be able to turn fear into positive energy. This will make you want to talk to more people and result in making more friends with them.

Making it into a Game

Let’s say your new year’s resolution was to make ten thousand dollars in passive income this year. Why not try something different than most people? Instead of being serious all the time, why not make the process of making money into a fun game. Sometimes making money can be frustrating and not-so-fun when you take your business really seriously. But if you can turn it into a game like Monopoly of Life, or maybe some sort of other creative board game where you mark your progress from “Start” to “Finish,” you will find making money, especially the path to making ten thousand dollars a year in passive income fun, exciting, and something you’ll look forward to everyday, rather than dull, repetitive, and boring.

Work Hard for It

Let’s say you wanted to gain more muscles this year – maybe thirty pounds of muscle because you think you’re too skinny of a person. You’ve probably heard of the saying “no pain, no gain”. As simplistic as it is, most people do not like to hear the words working hard. But in anything in life, there’s not easy way out of it. Most of the things that are worth going for in life require us to really work hard for it – whether this is spending hours training your mind and focusing or whether this is dripping hours of sweat, you have to have push yourself and work harder than anybody else that’s next to you. When you’re working out at the gym, don’t settle for doing the same pounds of weight each time just because you can do it, add a little bit more weight every time and go through that pain. Eventually, you’ll be able to grow stronger and gain more muscles throughout the body.

Always Stay Persistent

Let’s say your new year’s resolution was to quit smoking. This is one of the hardest things for people to do because of how nicotine affects the chemistry of the brain. Maybe you have tried many times during the year and the month you see the months of 2010 go by. As each month goes by, you get depressed because you never can seem to quit smoking. You got to stay persistent and you got to keep trying though. Winners don’t quit! And you’re a winner. Do whatever it takes to stay persistent because you know that 365 days is a long time to stay committed to one goal. If you stay persistent, eventually you’ll find a way to break through.

Reward Yourself

Finally, if you done all the steps of above. Don’t forget to reward yourself. What are some small pleasures that you like to do? Maybe it’s sipping on some coffee and reading a magazine at a coffee place, maybe it’s just calling some friends up and grabbing something to eat, maybe it’s just relaxing at home and doing nothing but listening to your favorite music. Our brains are constantly in “thinking mode” 24 hours of the day.  After a hard days of work, or even if it’s just accomplishing small tasks throughout the day, reward yourself to give your mind a break.

Whatever your new year’s resolution is, I hope you can make it. But remember, after reading this you may think that you know everything and brush it aside. That would be a waste of time for both of us. Really apply these principles. They are the most fundamental principles to goal setting but if you do them, you will definitely be on your way to success. So good luck to you. I hope by the year 2011, whatever resolution you have set forth for yourself right now will be resolved by then.

photo credit: pfala