Once you get up on the morning of January 1st (after partying through the night of December 31st) you may wish to start the New Year on a happy note by focusing on achieving goals you set for yourself as New Year Resolutions. You smartly decide on certain goals that you think you can achieve during the year, and then strive hard towards them.
But as the year progresses, you find out to your utter dismay that you haven’t been able to achieve anything close to what you wanted. Then you start giving excuses that you attribute to being the main reason for you not being able to achieve your New Year resolutions. However, the fact is a few simple steps or tips can really make the difference between making a New Year resolution and achieving it. These are as follows:-
1. Keep it simple – It doesn’t mean making an insignificant or unimpressive resolution; rather it means making it focused and concise. When your resolutions are precise and manageable, you put yourself on a realistic path to accomplish it.
2. Mark it down- Don’t daydream about new year resolutions, write it down on a paper and start a chart to track the progress you make along the way. Once mapped out, the resolutions remain in front of your eyes. The chances of you getting lost towards achieving your goals are minimized.
3. Communicate with someone- Nothing feels better than to communicate to the world about your resolutions. Being secretive doesn’t help, if your friends or family know what you’re up to, they can chip in by motivating you. Also, you will feel the joy to share your progress with them.
4. Keep the end in sight- In your zeal to achieve your goal losing sight of end line doesn’t help. It is important to visualize the process of reaching your goal. If something goes wrong, you can always realign the route you take to achieve your end goal.
5. Manage your time- In order to meet your goals, it is important that you use your time more efficiently. Find out things you should spend less time on, and instead devote that time towards achieving your goals. Also, make it a point to utilize it to the maximum.
6. Seek correct “what” and “why”- It’s easy to come up with “what” your goals are, but it is difficult to justify it with a “why.” Take time to figure out “why” you want to accomplish “what.” The familiarity will motivate you to achieve goals with ease.
7. Look back to move forward- Goals or resolutions are all about moving forward, in the New Year. So, if you have set yourself a goal once again, it is better to look back at the previous years’ goal to figure out why and what went wrong. It will help you to take corrective measures and ensure you achieve your goal in the New Year.
8. Check how you are feeling- Sometimes in the eagerness to pursue a goal, you lose yourself in the pursuit. It is important to keep checking in on yourself as you go about achieving your goal. Keep tabs on how you’re feeling, what’s working, what isn’t - it can help you accomplish your goal.
9. Look at the positive side of the goal- Once you set yourself a goal as part of your New Year Resolution, you should strive towards achieving it. Even if you don’t achieve it; don’t criticize yourself. Look at the positive side of your effort, you put in and use it for self-improvement to prepare yourself for the next goal.
10. Build in breaks- It is important to take your goals seriously if you want to reach the finish line. If you can’t move toward it, it's not worth it. So, keep powering yourself relentlessly towards your goal, but be sure to take a break from time to time to recharge your batteries.
Conclusion- New Year resolutions are good, all effort should be made to achieve your goals. But it’s helps to follow some simple steps to ensure that those goals are achieved in the New Year. Realistic, simple, and measurable are some of the most important attributes one must look for in a goal to achieve in the New Year. Even if the goal remains unfulfilled; its best advised to learn from it and use it as stepping stone achieve your goals in the long run.