4 Top Tips To Help You Set Up Your New Year's Resolutions

It’s that time of year when many of us are thinking about setting some New Year's resolutions. Maybe you've made them in the past and lost interest over time. Or perhaps you buckled down and achieved great things. Either way, you're now facing the beginning of another new year.

And so, even if you're less-than-thrilled with your follow-through in years prior, the new year brings amazing opportunities to challenge yourself in all kinds of new and exciting ways.

That’s why I’ve collected these 4 ideas to help you set up your resolutions, so you'll be successful, and step into the coming year with confidence and a plan.

1. Select an area of your life that's important to you.

It goes without saying that one of the keys to choosing your New Year's resolutions is to start with a goal that truly matters to you. But you might be surprised with how many set goals around something they think they should do or for something other people want them to do. 

If you don’t have that real desire, then you’ll always find a reason to put it off, or you won’t give it your all. You need to have a real, deep down and genuine pull to achieve what you want.

Not only should your resolution be something that’s meaningful to you, but that is also realistic to achieve.

Checking these boxes off will help you to stay dedicated and motivated, which can be important when you're faced with how to overcome difficult challenges and obstacles along the way. 

2. Be specific.

One thing that bothers me about goal setting and New Year’s resolutions is that  most people do it all wrong. They’ll choose an end goal, or a final condition where you'll hear people say something like, "My New Year's resolution is to get in to shape" or "I want to work less."

I touched on this in last week’s Productivity Message where I touched on what to avoid when setting goals.  Most people make the mistake of setting goals that are too general to have any real meaning. And that’s why 90% of New Year’s Resolutions fail by Valentine’s Day.

RELATED ARTICLE | Here's the Biggest Mistake to Avoid When Setting New Year's Resolutions

For example, here's how to be more specific:

For the “get into shape” resolution to be successful, it needs to be specific and measurable. Specific means that you’re setting the goal with a specific outcome to be achieved. Saying, "I want to lose 2 inches from my waist" is better.

3. Make your resolution measurable. 

For the “get into shape” resolution to be successful, remember it needs to be specific and measurable. Measurable means that it needs to be trackable. That way, you can keep a tally of your ongoing progress. 

To really be effective, state in as simple as terms possible, as in a "yes" or a "no" outcome.

For example, spending more time with your family is more subjective unless you are able to measure it by saying something like, “I will spend 4 hours with my family on Friday nights, starting this week."  

By monitoring and measuring my progress each week, you can easily measure the number of hours with family week to week, and you can monitor your follow-through and overall progress. 

So, be specific in your resolution as well as how you will measure your results.

4. Structure your resolution using mini-goals. 

For me, when I have an entire year to achieve a new goal or resolution, it can be put on the back burner for a while. Then, as it gets to be just a few weeks before the deadline arrives, it either rises to the top of the list or gets put on the list for next year.

You might have experienced something like that, too.

But one thing I have found to be extremely effective is to cut big goals and resolutions down into smaller, separate goals. In other words - think of reaching your resolution through a process moving towards your end goal. I’ve talked about this before where people give up on their resolutions because they miss out on these tips. 

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If you want to lose those stubborn 10 pounds of belly fat, cut this into mini-goals: Lose 10 pounds in the first months of the year, lose another 10 pounds in the second month, and drop the final 10 pounds the third month. 

From there, you’ll get into setting the daily routines, habits and accountability you’ll employ to help you get there. 

SUMMARY

So, there you have it, the 4 top tips to help you set up your New Year's Resolutions. Let’s do a recap so that you set effective resolutions and achieve them consistently:

Start with being specific and measurable. And from there, utilize the idea of setting mini-goals to help you with your motivation and progress.

By addressing your resolution as a process rather than just a goal, you're much more likely to succeed. And when you achieve one goal, you're more apt to set resolutions and accomplish them in the years that follow.

Start this year to make each year your best one ever! 

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By the way, in case you missed it, I recently hosted a 2021 Year in Review Workshop designed to help people look back at the last 12 months and reflect so that you can step into the New Year with confidence and a plan. 

Watch the replay for FREE by clicking here to check it out!

Look, we’re both serious about accomplishing your most important goals in life. Let’s make it official and work together.

If you want to focus more on achieving your life's most important goals this year, both personally and professionally, without sacrificing your happiness, joy or sanity, let's connect and achieve them together. Click here to start a short questionnaire and let's see if it might make sense to explore your options in working with me.

Damien Vanderburg is a certified high performance coach with a focus on personal development, high price-point sales and serial entrepreneurship. With more than 20 years experience teaching, training and developing high performers, Damien helps those who want to transform effectiveness, maximize potential and accelerate results. He is also the co-founder of Counterpoint Test Prep, a test prep and college app consulting company. 

Go to www.damienvanderburg.com and learn more. 

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