Your Self Improvement Blog

Today I want to talk about what will make your 2010 New Year’s resolution successful. While this article will certainly apply to those who want to improve their financial situation, it is also good for other areas in your life. Similar to brand new businesses, it seems like the vast majority of New Year’s resolutions never pan out. Now why is that? Is it because people just aren’t disciplined? Yes. Is it because there is not enough motivation? Yes. What can be done about these things? Well, first consider the following:

There are two main psychological blocks, that New Year’s resolutions create, that need to be addressed.

The first one is that most people who do New Year’s resolutions are not serious. As a matter of fact, I would even say that 99% of people who do them are not serious. Why do I say that? Let’s say that you were in a doctor’s office in November, and you were morbidly obese. You’ve just had a heart attack, and also… your name is Clifton. So… your doctor looks you in the eye and says, “Clifton, you are going to have to get in shape immediately or you are going to die”. “You have to start exercising”. “You have to start drinking water”. “You have to stop eating foods that are high in cholesterol”. “If you don’t make these changes, you are not going to make it much longer!”

Now… if these events took place in your life, would you then go home and say, “You know… I’m going to make a New Year’s resolution”. “After I eat like a hog in November and December, I’m going to start eating healthy and exercising in January”, and then continue to live the same lifestyle for the next two months? NO!! If you had some sense, you would make lifestyle changes IMMEDIATELY! Because it would be important.

Therefore, if you are “planning” to act a fool during the holidays, and then decide to be healthy afterwards, how serious are you about being healthy? If you are “planning” to go out and dig yourself DEEP into debt during the holidays, and then decide to be smart with your money starting in the new year, how serious are you about being smart with your money? You see, if you were REALLY serious about doing “this” and “that”, then why did you not consider doing “this” and “that” until it came time to do your resolution?

The vast majority of people do resolutions because that’s what they are supposed to do. You’d be hard pressed to go through December and January without someone asking you what yours is. That reason is not going to cut it in the long run, so whatever you make the decision to do, you must ask yourself, “Why am I doing this?” The cause must invigorate you, or it won’t be worth your while.

The second reason that New Year’s resolutions fail is an obvious but yet not so obvious one. They are “New Years” resolutions! Consider this. If someone came to you on January 1st and said, “Happy New Year” to you, it would be perfectly acceptable. If someone came to you on January 15th and said, “Happy New Year” to you, it may be a little iffy. If someone came to you in March and said, “Happy New Year” to you, you would probably believe that that person is not playing with a full deck.

You see, “New Year’s” resolutions only work in the “New Year” So when the new year is over, your resolution is over. This is why the gyms fill up in January and are empty by March. In March, it is no longer a new year. So if you make a “New Year’s” resolution, then once the year is no longer new, your subconscious mind will tell you that your quest is over! Whatever progress you made will fade into oblivion until, of course, the next “New Year” when it will be time to repeat the short term cycle.

These are the reasons why I recommend not doing a New Year’s resolution at all. I recommend setting goals. Make some that are short term and long term. The rest of this article will deal with how to set goals successfully, because most people who set goals don’t achieve them either. Here are five steps.

Be Serious

As I’ve stated before, doing something because you are supposed to is not going to cut it. You have to be 100% committed to your goal(s), as if your life depended on it, and that means start today!

Be Specific

Vague goals will give you vague results. If you don’t know precisesly where you are going, you can end up anywhere. Don’t just say, “I want to save more money than I did last year”. If you do that, then you may end up saving .01 more than you did last year. Exactly how much do you want to save? And by when? Using personal finance software may help you in this type of situation. You can’t just say, “I want to get rid of some weight”. How much weight! Be specific.

Vividly Imagine it

Now you may have a specific place to go, and you can even have a specific game plan to get there, but if you can’t imagine where you are going, you won’t get anywhere. You must know exactly what your goal looks like, and you have to be able to imagine it vividly in order to achieve it. To help with your visualization, you can hang pictures around your house, change the screensaver on your computer, etc, etc… so that your vision is constantly on your mind. Doing this will keep you motivated.

Accountability

You have to be accountable to whatever goal you set. This goes back to the first point of being serious. You can’t just lackadaisically go into your goal. You have to hold yourself accountable, first and foremost. Now I know that for some people, asking them to hold themselves accountable may be kind of shaky. The results are liable to come back “job well done”. This is why personal trainers are popular. Another way to go is to make your goals public! Tell your friends and family and then tell them to make sure to check up on you.

Have a Game Plan

You have to have a step by step game plan to go wherever you want to go. If there is no roadmap to your destination, there will be no destination. Now the best thing to do is to begin with the end in mind. Then you will want to make short term goals that will comprise your long term goals.

For example, if you want to save $12,000 in the next year, then you will want to break that down into $1,000 per month. It’s much easier to comprise a game plan to save $1,000 in the next month than it is to comprise a year long plan with no reference points. Now of course, after a month, you may find that you can save $1500, and then you can change your long term plan accordingly.

This game plan must be written! You just can’t have this out in “space” somewhere. It must be written down. This will also help you to visualize what you need.

Now, if you use these five steps, you should be well on your way to having a happy, full year, starting today.

To read the conclusion of this article and get some more tips on how to make these steps work, you can go to the article, “How to fullful your top new years resolution. You can also subscribe to the free online monthly e-zine and get valuable info on personal finance.

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