5 Surefire Ways to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions For Extraordinary Success…

Happy New Year!

I hope that 2015 is off to a great start for each and every one of you. Did you do anything special to bring in the new year?

I just got back from a wonderful vacation in Hilton Head, S.C. While there and after I got back yesterday, I was thinking about what many of us think about at this time of year – new year’s resolutions.

I’m sure you’ve made some, right?

5 Surefire Ways to Stick to Your New Year’s Resolutions for Extraordinary Success…

When it comes to new year’s resolutions, making them is the easy part, yes?

But keeping them? Now, you see, there’s the rub.

How do we keep them beyond the month of January? (And for some of us, beyond the first week?!)

Try this…

1: Set habits, not goals – and small ones at that.

I’m starting off with this tip because it’s my favorite one. And it comes from a former colleague of mine, Ed Gandia, who now runs the International Freelancers Academy.

Ed suggests we replace goals with habits…with the thinking being, at least according to my interpretation, that if we put these daily/weekly habits into place, we will ultimately manifest the desired goal.

And these aren’t just any habits. They’re what Ed calls “mini habits” – habits that are so ridiculously easy and small, you can’t help but do them.

For example, wanting to re-introduce push-ups into his daily routine, Ed set the mini habit of doing just *one* push-up a day. As he so aptly said, “Once you’re down on the floor, you can’t help but do more.”

Your to-do –> In his podcast, Ed challenged listeners to start a mini habit related to one area of their lives or businesses. I’d like to issue you a related challenge. Think about one of your new year’s resolutions for 2015 – what is one small step (or mini habit) you can take on a regular basis to begin working toward it?

2: Give yourself a gold star.

Remember when you had to do chores as a child? And your parents gave you a gold star every time you did your chores well and on time?

These tools worked then because having a visual representation of our progress was gratifying to our brains and motivated us to continue doing our chores. (Hey, who says you have to be an Olympian to get the gold?!)

Guess what? These tools can work well for us adults too!

Take a look at these charts I found online – http://bit.ly/1ytYVUH and http://bit.ly/1DrU0m6.

Your to-do –> Think about your new year’s resolutions for 2015 and try using a chart such as these to track your progress in achieving them. And give yourself a little reward along the way for every success you have!

3: Find an app for that.

If you’re not into the good old-fashioned chart, then you can rest assured that there’s an app (for the iPhone or Android) that’s geared toward helping you keep your resolutions.

One app I just discovered and downloaded is coach.me. Coach.me allows you to set goals in different categories, including personal growth, fitness, relationships, productivity and more.

So far, I’ve established two goals (or resolutions) – meditating each day for five minutes and watching at least two TED talks a week. (See how these are really small mini habits, like Ed suggested?)

I’ll let you know how it goes!

Your to-do –> Search your iPhone or Android and find an app to help you keep your 2015 new year’s resolutions.

4: Hire a coach.

If you’ve got the budget, you may want to consider hiring a life or business coach to help you keep your resolutions.

Sometimes an objective voice who can bring new ideas and hold you accountable to meeting your goals is just what the doctor ordered!

My suggestion if you’re going to use a coach? Find a ‘coach-sultant’, meaning someone who doesn’t just help you find the answers in yourself (this is the coach part), but who can also bring his or her own ideas to the table (this is the consultant part).

Your to-do –> If you’re interested in finding a coach, start researching options by visiting coachfederation.org or  coachinc.com/CoachU/ and using the ‘Find a coach’ feature (or member directory). You can also search Google or LinkedIn. Or, of course, ask trusted friends or colleagues for referrals.

5: Find an accountability partner or group.

Don’t have the budget to hire a coach? A great alternative is to find an accountability partner or an accountability group – either offline or online.

I’m part of an online accountability group started by my friend, Jacqueline Wolven, on Facebook – the #30DayChallenge group.

Each 30 days, members of the group pick a challenge they want to tackle and then post each day whether they’ve made any progress. Members usually respond with encouragement and support – which creates a sense of community and idea-sharing.

It’s a great idea, and I hope to take more advantage of it in 2015!

Your to-do –> Find a group or just one person to serve as your accountability partner. Make it a goal to check in with each other regularly and without fail to keep the momentum going!

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So, what surefire tips do YOU have for keeping your new year’s resolutions?

Make sure to share them in the comments below, because I know many of us could benefit from them!

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Know someone struggling to keep their new year’s resolutions and who could benefit from this post? Please share it with them by using one of the share buttons at the top or bottom of this post, or emailing them this URL: http://beyourselfandtherestwillfollow.com/how-to-keep-your-new-years-resolutions

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Happy New Year again!

Rachel

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