How to Keep Your New Year’s Resolutions

Now that we’re into 2008, you probably are starting to force yourself (we hope!) to get your New Year’s Resolutions ironed out. Chance are, they look something like that photo you see in this post with some academics blended in. How do you keep your New Year’s Resolutions resolute all year round? We’re hoping we can make it easier for you.

Start small. One of the key things is that you’re probably not looking to make a drastic change. You need a means to an end and you need to work your way through the varying hoops to get there. As an extreme example, you probably don’t want to drop from a carnivore to a vegan overnight. Take small steps. Change your diet slowly. Don’t get discouraged when it doesn’t work out, but don’t build upon impossible goals that are hard to accomplish. All that will do for you will prevent you from wanting to go on, and your goal is to achieve your resolutions so that you have better ones for 2009.

At the same time, don’t tackle too many tasks at once. While the list on the left has well-meaning, 7 items is probably too much unless you have complete motivation to go with all seven. I’m more comfortable with 2 or 3 (and this year, I have only one!).

Make resolutions that you’re able to keep. That’s why you need to start small. Don’t look to get out of college and find a $300k job. It’s probably not going to happen. Make realistic goals that you can achieve.

Give yourself positive reinforcement. When you do really well, reward yourself. Just don’t deviate from your tasks. There’s a great way to motivate yourself with a program called Point Motivator. You award yourself points for going toward your goal and take points away with those rewards. Just don’t go into point debt or you’ll have to start over again — and that’ll be a setback you don’t want!

Focus! Have this Brad Isaac quote in mind. “You might think “this goal is impossible!” But if you simply show up and keep going, you will be doing the impossible.” Go ahead. Surprise yourself with all the work you’re putting forward.

Tomorrow we’ll talk about some realistic goals for college students — just in case you haven’t set your resolutions in stone.