Resolutions for 2018: ten tips to start, sustain and succeed

How are you getting on with the promises you made to yourself at the turn of the year?

Are you speeding them along?

Or have you already lost focus and given up? Returning from the long break to the busyness of work and everyday life, have other things got in the way?

If so, you’re in good company. According to a survey at the University of Hertfordshire, 78% give up on the promises they made to themselves at the start of the year.

No matter how keen you feel when you make your resolutions, it isn’t easy to maintain some or all of good intentions.

Here are ten actions to help you start, sustain and succeed.

1. Decide what you want & make your goals specific: not “I want to get fitter” but “I will walk half an hour a day starting next Saturday”.

2. List a realistic number of goals, enough to challenge & excite you but not too many to overwhelm you.

3. Ensure your goals are realistic – for you and your lifestyle: you may want to take up three evening courses, but if you do long hours at work, you may want to start with one, and then increase the number of courses you do according to how you find it. Taking on too much could result in having to give them up.

4. Prioritise your goals: put them in order of importance and/or timing as you are unlikely to be able to pursue them all at once; better to have a rolling programme of goals.

5. Review your goals in February, once your routine is fully back to normal. Indeed it’s worth checking where you are with each goal once a month to see what strategies are working, and what actions are pending.

6. Set yourself a start date for each goal: mark your start date in your diary/planner as if it is an appointment with yourself. Take your first step, do your first task, on that day.

7. Set yourself a completion date for each goal & put it in your diary/planner: this will motivate you to act and make it look a reality.

8. Break larger tasks into bite-sized, manageable pieces to make them less daunting: you will then feel these tasks are achievable and be more likely to carry them through

9. Set times & dates to work towards your goals and write them down in your diary/planner and stick to them. By using a year planner you will be able to see the whole year ahead at glance & how all your goals blend with each other & fit into the year.

10. Write everything down – don’t simply hold your ideas & actions in your head.

If you would like that extra bit of support to make it all happen, then help is at hand. Life Coaching will help you achieve your goals and resolutions.