Key Ways to Keep New Year's Resolutions

The folklore surrounding New Year's resolutions is that people quickly forget them, fail at keeping them, and don't achieve much of them. Yes, that word was "folklore." It's common for people to assume that there's failure attached to the notion of New Year's resolutions, but there doesn't have to be.

You see, there are plenty of people who make resolutions and actually achieve the goals they set for themselves at the start of the year. There are five specific steps to assuring you will be successful too.

1. First, make goals that are achievable. If you are currently a couch potato who's 25 pounds overweight, then it's nearly a sure thing that you will fail at a resolution that says something like, "Climb Mount Everest by the end of the year." It's a lofty goal, to be sure, and not a bad one, for several years down the road. But expecting you to achieve all that in one year - to go from couch potato, to 25 pounds lost, to having the money, time and energy to climb Mount Everest - is too lofty a goal. It's like, well, climbing Mount Everest. So you start small. You might make the resolution that you will lose 25 pounds this year. That's it. Next year you can add goals related to the 25-pound weight loss.

2. Be clear about your goals. If you're not sure what your goal is, that will be reflected in your resolution. For example, you know you want to improve your career, so you write yourself a resolution that says something like, "Make more money by the end of the year." That's a fine goal, but perhaps you can be more specific. Do you want to stay in your current career, or make a complete job change? How do you think you can make more money? Perhaps your resolution, then, can be specific. It might say something like, "Ask for the promotion when Joe retires, then ask for deserved raise."

3. Write them down. It might seem a little 8^th grade, but it's not. Writing things down serves two purposes - it cements the goal in your mind and it gives you something to look back on to remind you what you aspire to. You might even consider keeping the list somewhere front and center - on your bathroom mirror, on the fridge. When you see the list on a daily basis, it helps to keep you on task. If your goal is to lose weight, you could keep your resolution list on the fridge. If it's to get out of debt, keep the list with your bills so you see it every time you work on your finances.

4. Think carefully about your goal before you commit to it. If you want to be serious about this New Year's resolution thing, you must be frank with yourself about those goals. Too often we get so caught up in the energy surrounding the start of the New Year and the promise of a "fresh start" that we jot down things and make promises we just aren't going to keep. You might even find that two or three days later, you're not at all committed to the resolutions you just made. The best resolutions are those that you have given careful thought to and which you have made a dedicated promise to yourself about.

5. Finally, have fun with your resolutions. Put something really fun on your list like, "finally learn how to make sushi (take a class)" or "take an all-girls road trip to Vegas". You might hold the fun thing until you complete other goals on your list like losing weight or getting out of debt. But putting something fun and frivolous on your New Year's resolution list will give you something to look forward to as you do the hard work of improving your life.

Making New Year's resolutions can be fun and worthwhile, if you do it with forethought and respect for yourself, your limitations and your ultimate goals. Be true to yourself and what you want to accomplish. You can do anything!