New Year’s Resolutions

So the confetti is gone, the champagne has been consumed, the fancy clothes are back on the hangers and now you are wondering what you will do differently this year to actually implement your New Year’s resolutions.

Rather than present an overwhelming list of considerations, perhaps these short tips will be helpful:

• identify no more than 5 goals for the year
• take baby steps and work slowly and deliberately toward your objectives
• come up with SMART goals-specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and time bound resolutions
• write down each goal, what you specifically want to accomplish and assign a completion date; put the list where you can see it regularly-the refrigerator (especially if losing weight is one of your resolutions), the bathroom mirror, your car dashboard;
• do not even think you can accomplish all five resolutions by the end of February-give yourself some breathing room and establish reasonable time frames to reach your goal!
• partner with a spouse, significant other or a friend on difficult goals, like getting back to regular exercising-which doesn’t mean trying to run your first marathon by the end of January
• forgive yourself if you fall back into old habits; once that’s done, get back on track
• celebrate small victories; for example, once you reach your savings target, treat yourself to a nice dinner;

Keeping New Year resolutions is challenging. By treating yourself kindly and coming up with realistic expectations, you will be surprised how much you can accomplish!

Happy New Year!

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