Already given up on your resolutions? Don’t be too hard on yourself. According to research, the failure rate for new year’s resolutions is about 80 per cent and most people have given up or forgotten about them by the middle of February.
Such a high failure rate would suggest that resolutions are not so important. However, when the top three pledges made focus on health, diet and finance, this is clearly not the case.
So, is it too late to decide to make a change? The good news is there’s nothing stopping you making or redesigning resolutions any time you wish!
If you think 'why bother, when I will only fail again', think again. Failure is a good thing! We now know what didn’t work so we can avoid falling into that trap again.
Clearly identify why making a change or doing something new is important to you, make a plan of how you are going to achieve it and what actions you must take to be successful. Think about what success will look like, feel like or sound like.
Think about the type of resolution you are setting. Is it a ‘start goal’ or a ‘stop goal’? Research shows that men achieve stop goals more easily and women find start goals easier to achieve.
Make your goals SMART - Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timebound.
Instead of saying you are going to save money this year, set yourself an achievable target, broken down month by month.
As well as knowing what you want to achieve, break your goals down into small chunks. Instead of aiming to lose 2 stones by 1 July, redefine it to be fitter and healthier and set yourself weekly targets/goals. Give yourself rewards on the way for achieving those smaller goals.
Understanding what motivates you is the key. Use your knowledge of what motivates you to support you to achieve your goals.
If you make your goals known to those around you it makes it much easier to achieve them.
We can’t break bad habits. The key is to replace them with new ones. If you want to start going for a walk every morning, lay your walking gear out before you go to bed and think about the start of that walk as you go to sleep.
If you want to reduce your expenditure on coffee, walk a different route to walk so you don’t go past your favourite coffee shop. If you want to stop snacking, make sure there are no snacks (or only healthy ones) available. Don’t just rely on your will power. As we know, we only have a certain amount of will power each day.
Sarah Stones is a Motivation Specialist and a Coach www.plainsailingmotivation.co.uk
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