At Home Moms

Every year millions of people make New Year’s resolutions for self improvement and by February, most of those people have failed to keep them and given up.  Why do they fail?  It’s not because their resolutions aren’t worthy.  The most common resolutions are to lose weight or quit smoking or do something to make your life better.

There are several reasons why people can’t seem to keep them.  Resolutions are basically goals and in order to meet our goals, we have to have a plan.   Meeting your goals just doesn’t happen.  If you have set challenging goals, you have to do something to make them happen.   It’s easy to say that you are going to lose 15 lbs in 2010 but do you give any thought to how you are going to do it?

Make a Plan

If you are going to give serious thought to your New Years Resolution, you also need to give serious thought to how you are going to make that goal happen.  It’s easy to say that I am going to build my business in 2010 but not so easy to figure out exactly how I am going to do it.   Or what my back up plan is going to be if my initial attempts don’t work.

My own resolution is to build my Shaklee business to the point where I am getting a $500 bonus check every month.  My plan to accomplish this is two fold.  I plan on sending out flyers to my 100 acquaintances on different Shaklee products.  I also plan on writing and promoting weekly articles on nutrition for this website as well as my Good Health, Good Nutrition, Good Business site.  The third prong of my plan will be writing motivational business articles weekly for this site.  There are more details to the plan but I think these three major parts of the plan will work slowly over the months to grow the business enough to meet my goal.

Do Something Daily

The second biggest reason why most people fail to keep their resolutions is because they make them and they work at them for a week or two before they fall by the wayside.  If you are going to fulfill your resolutions you should be doing something every day to keep them.  This does two things.  It keeps your resolutions in the front of your mind because you are actively working to keep them even if what you are doing is small.  By sending out 5 flyers per day each month I am spending a minimum of 15 minutes per day thinking about my business.  It doesn’t sound like a lot but it does keep my focus on the business.  Those 15 minutes of concentration bloom into more and different efforts to grow the business.

Make Your Resolutions Specific and Measurable

If you aren’t specific and measurable in making your resolutions or goals then you will never know if you are making progress.  If you simply say you are going to lose weight then you might lose a lb and then gain 5.  Rather than saying you are going to lose weight, decide on a goal weight such as I will  weigh 150 on December 31, 2010.   This will keep you focused on continuing to lose and not sabotaging your goal by making progress and then not continuing.  You will easily be able to see if you are reaching your goal or losing ground.

Make It Positive and Concrete

Instead of saying I want to quit smoking say I will be a non smoker.  Instead of saying I want to lose weight, say I will wear a size 10.  Instead of saying I want to find a job say I will be employed.  Don’t make it something you want to do, make it something you are going to do.  The psychological impact of reading and saying these concrete positive statements is far greater than thinking about something you want to do.

Write it down

Write your resolutions down somewhere.  I make a production of mine by not only writing them down but by making a small poster of them.  I illustrate it with fancy fonts and pictures.  Put them someplace where you will look at them every day.  If you use a calendar on your computer, use a reminder to pop up daily that lists your resolutions.  You can’t reach them if you aren’t thinking about them.  Most people don’t even remember what their resolutions were by spring time.  How can you possibly reach something that you think about once a year?

Visualize It

Once you have written down what you will accomplish this year, visualize it.  Think about what it will feel like, imagine what your day will be like when you reach your goal.  How will you change?  Will you look great in that slinky black dress?  What shoes are you going to wear with it?  If you are making more money, how will you use it?  How will it make your life better?  If you are going to be a non smoker, how will it change your life?  Will you be healthier?  Will you be able to do things that you can’t do now?   Spend a moment visualizing it daily.  Let your imagination run wild.

Say It Outloud

Yes, people will think you are crazy if you go around chanting that you are going to be a non smoker or that you are going to be a size 10 but again, the psychological impact of stating these affirmations outloud is far greater than just reading them silently.  If you say it often enough you will start to believe it and then you will make it happen.  If you have ever watched “The Secret” most of it is about the power of positive thinking.  If you think positively about things then you subconsciously do things to make that happen.  It works on the same principle as brain washing.

If you do these things daily, you will be amazed at how easy it is to make your New Years Resolutions happen.  It will almost seem miraculous as things just start to unfold making your dreams come true.  It really isn’t a miracle though it is simply that you maintained a positive focus on achieving your goals.  Anything is possible once you make up your mind that it is.