The end of the year is a time for reflection and making peace with the things in your life you couldn’t change. Therefore, it only makes sense that the New Year would be about taking back control and tackling the things you can change in your own personal act of carpe diem. Still, while more than 40-percent of the population will make New Year’s resolutions toward positive change, less than half of them will follow through within the first six months. Sadly, only 19 percent will have successfully met their goal at the one-year mark. The question is … why?
According to experts, the answer lies in how we set these goals. As a whole, we tend to make broad-sweeping, unrealistic resolutions such as “get more exercise”, “lose weight” or “drink less.” While these are great in concept, they do not offer measures of success or actionable steps in how to be successful, which ultimately leaves too much room for failure. As a result, we often give up.
As you start to map out your reinvention to a healthier you in 2014, here are a few tips to ensure success with your New Year’s resolutions.
1. Make Your Goals Measurable:
Rather than make a resolution to “eat healthier” in the New Year, turn this into something measurable according to where you stand in relation to this goal. For instance, if you want to be healthier by consuming less meat, consider framing your New Year’s resolution to go meatless for lunch. Set a deadline to re-assess your healthier eating goal. If you find that you are having a difficult time achieving that goal by the set date, tweak accordingly to avoid setting yourself up for failure. On the other hand, you can also tweak your goals to increase the challenge (i.e.: only purchase meat that is USDA certified organic).
