3 Steps to Achieving your New Year Resolutions.

Last week I heard a statistic that 80% of New Year’s resolutions are broken by 8.02 pm on the first Friday after the New Year.  Any surprises there?

 “I want to get fit”, “ I want to lose weight”, “I want to save money” etc. starts in the right way. Joining the gym, Googling the latest fad diet, whizzing up green smoothies and by-passing the bakery... All the intentions are good and we start with a flourish.  But a few days later, on Friday night after a long, hungry, frantic week at work catching up, what happens? It’s cold and wet and the temptation of staying in, watching the box with a glass of wine and a takeaway is too much for even the strongest amongst us!

By Saturday, we shrug our shoulders and return to our usual habits, briefly berating ourselves for having no willpower and say “what the hell, there’s always next year!”

So what is the reason for this? Why are so many of us unable to keep resolutions and fall off the horse at the first hurdle? What can we do to stay on track and reach our goals? Can we do anything to stay on track or should we just settle for what we have?

The reasons we fail are these: We don't want it enough, we set ourselves fuzzy, unrealistic goal and we try to take the fastest short-cut to success.

I will repeat this in a different way! If you set yourself New Year resolutions and have failed already, the chances are YOU DIDN'T WANT IT ENOUGH, YOU DIDN'T SET YOURSELF AN ACHIEVABLE GOAL/S WITH A CLEAR OUTCOME and / or YOU CHOSE A ROUTE THAT WAS TOO HARD TO MAINTAIN. 

Here are three steps to achieving a goal, and TAKE NOTE! Step one has to be there before 2 and 3 will work!

1. Firstly, to achieve results you must really, really want something or you may as well forget the next few steps. The DESIRE to achieve the goal has to be bigger and stronger than the consequences of not achieving it.  Take the most common resolution: Weight loss for example. Many of us wish we could lose a little weight but for most if us, if we don’t, our lives won’t change much (in the short term that is). The desire to lose weight only becomes strong we have a goal in mind, such as looking great for a wedding or being told by a doctor to lose weight for health reasons. Then it may become compelling!  So to achieve a resolution we must first CREATE A COMPELLING REASON to achieve the goal.  Even better, think about the consequences of not achieving the goal. For example, if I continue to put on half a stone a year for the next 10 years, that’s going to create probable health risks which I don’t want to deal with. I then may feel compelled to set a real goal such as “lose 20 pounds in one year to get to my healthy goal weight and make 5 changes to create a permanent healthy lifestyle”.
2. Secondly, and I’m sure you have heard of SMART goal-setting before, make the goals Specific,   Measurable, Achievable, Results-focused and Time-bound. For example “I hate this weather, I’d love to go on a nice sunny holiday every winter” is vague.  Alternatively: “I want to save £1,500 (or $30 a week for the next 12 months) so that I can go on holiday to Florida in January next year” is a SMART goal. This type of goal setting makes the holiday seem possible as there is a clear vision of where you want to go and the time frame and steps to achieve it.  
3. Lastly, take small regular steps towards your goal instead of large occasional leaps. An analogy which helps with this is this: Think about climbing a mountain. The hardest, yet usually the quickest route is to climb straight up the rock faces to the top. However, extreme pain, sweat and tears are required and you are more likely to give up if the going gets tough (which it inevitably will!). Another route is to take the path which zig-zags around the mountain. It may be slower but, as is so often the case, slow and steady wins the race!

 
Breaking your goal into small, manageable steps, is more likely to get you to the end result. Going back to weight loss as an example, semi-starving yourself for a month may allow you to drop a stone in weight but it will be very hard to do and even more difficult to keep up long term. You may end up feeling weak, hungry, deprived, antisocial and unhappy in the process. Isn’t it better to make small daily changes to you diet e.g. eating cake as a treat once a week instead of four times (or more!), dishing up smaller portions at most mealtimes and avoiding takeaways in favour of home-cooked, healthy meals?  Over the course of a few months, these changes will see the same benefits as the crash diet but with less pain and effort. It’s like climbing the mountain the sensible way!
 
                                                  GOAL ACHIEVEMENT
 
                                      DESIRE – YOU HAVE TO WANT IT ENOUGH

                         Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results Driven and Time- Bound
 
               TAKE THE WINDY MOUNTAIN PATH TO THE TOP INSTEAD OF THE STEEP ROCK FACE

---