3 Tips To Help You Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions | Michael E. ParkerThe year is just beginning and it wasn’t too long ago that we set our New Year’s resolutions.

Whether you wanted to read more, break bad habits or get into shape, you probably still have your New Year’s resolutions on your mind. However, you’re also probably worried about following through with these resolutions.

Research conducted at the University of Scranton shows that only 44 percent of people who make New Year’s resolutions are still sticking to them six months later. You can breathe a sigh of relief that you’re not alone, but don’t get too comfortable, because achieving your resolutions is possible. Here are a few tips for following through with those resolutions:

  • Break it down into benchmarks.

One key reason that people give up on their goals is that their goals are too general. If your goal is simply to “get in shape”, then perhaps you haven’t decided exactly what that means for you. Think about specific goals you have with regard to your diet or your level of activity. Then break those goals into manageable bits. If you have a goal weight that you want to reach by December, calculate how many pounds you’ll have to lose each month. It will probably be a small amount like 2.5 pounds, but that’s what makes this process so great. Your goals will seem much less intimidating when you break them down into small fragments.

  • Schedule check-ins.

After a few weeks or months have gone by, many people forget about their New Year’s resolutions. You may get distracted by other obligations such as work and family and forget to focus on your goals. To make sure you don’t lose sight of your resolutions, it’s a good idea to schedule days throughout the year when you’ll reassess the progress you’ve made toward your goals. Pick one day each month to do this. On these scheduled days, you should reflect on how close you are to achieving your goals, what you’ve done in the past months to fulfill them and what you will do next month toward your goals.

  • Don’t allow failure to stop you.

If can be hard to keep working toward your goals throughout a whole year. Once you begin to fail, it’s tempting to talk yourself out of trying. However, it’s important to remind yourself that you can push forward even after you’ve dropped the ball. If you stopped working on your novel for a while, or you had quite a few “cheat days” in a row, this doesn’t mean that you have to give up on your goals. Setbacks don’t have to be permanent barriers.
New Year’s resolutions can be hard to fulfill, but they’re a lot easier to keep up with if you break them down into parts and keep up with your progress. New Year’s resolutions are all about planning and measuring your progress. If you follow these steps, you’re bound to reach the goals you want to achieve this year.