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Can you believe it is New Year’s? Another year has passed us by. Life has been going so fast – this year I will have a 4-year-old. As a mom, making New Year’s resolutions has changed significantly from being single and not married with children. My goals used to be something like get in shape, make money, get a real job, travel, etc. Although those are still many of my goals, but now they have become more realistic and family oriented.
Setting New Year’s resolutions is both easy and hard at the same time. How can you know what will happen throughout the year and what do you think you could actually accomplish throughout the entire year? There are lots of things that people can choose as resolutions, but will they be discouraged in the first two months and let them go? Do you remember your goals from January 2017? Come to think of it… I have no idea what mine were.
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How do you set resolutions for the new year and then keep them? Here are a few tips that you can use to keep your goals for the upcoming new year:
- Work with others. If you set goals for yourself with a significant other or friends, this makes it easier to achieve a goal when you are working with others.
- Set a timeline. When setting a timeline, make sure it is realistic. Schedule it throughout the year with specific dates and track your progress through those times.
- Make it realistic. Setting your goals outlandishly high will only make you feel like a failure. New Year’s resolutions are not meant to make you feel like you are failing, they are meant to set some a specific direction that you would like to take going into a brand new year. For example, if your new year’s resolution is to climb a mountain in Africa, but you will not even be able to get to Africa this year, then you are already setting yourself up for failure. However, you can start with climbing a local mountain near your home and set a number that you would like to climb throughout the year. Start small and work your way up.
- Don’t try to change your entire life. Try to work on setting and accomplishing one life change at a time. If you are looking to move, set that up first. Don’t want to move, change jobs, get married, quit smoking, eat healthy and run marathons. Pick a few of those that you can put forth all your effort to and exert all your effort to those specific goals.
- Pick a few – no more than 5. When you pick too many New Year’s resolutions, the less likely you are to accomplish the goals or follow through with all of them. If you pick less than 5 of the top things you would like to work on this year, the more likely you are to accomplish them since you can now focus your effort on meeting these goals.
With these tips, you can think about what you want to accomplish this year and how you will tackle it. Be accountable and pick resolutions that will make you feel good about yourself. With every New Year there are opportunities for a new start. Happy New Year!
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