Statistics show that most people who make New Year resolutions fail to bring about the change that they resolved would happen. In fact 88% of people break their New Year resolutions. Given this negative fact, if a person wants to ensure the success of their resolve then they need to go about the formulations of their resolutions in the right way. Research has shown that there is a 22% higher chance of the resolutions being successful if people engage in goal setting.

Get Down To It

Psychologists believe that rather than having several resolutions we are more likely to keep our resolutions if we make just one and focus on it energetically.

New Year resolutions should be goal focused but for success it is important to choose a specific realistic goal.

Many individuals choose ambiguous goals when making their resolutions such as “lose weight” or “get in shape”. Whilst such resolutions are admirable they are likely to fail as there are no specific goals or objectives attached to them.

Rather than saying “lose weight” it is better to resolve to “lose 10 kg”. The goal is then specific.

Once there is a specific goal it is then possible to plan to achieve the goal. There has to be a plan to tackle the necessary behavioral changes that will bring about success.

We should write down the goal and then make a list of the things that we might have to do to achieve the goal. The small steps or objectives that have to be undertaken to achieve the goal need to be tiny.

It is better to have the objective of losing half a kilo a week to achieve the 10 kg weight loss than having the objective of losing 10kg in two weeks.

Knowing exactly what you are aiming for and how to go about it in small steps it is much more likely that a resolution will be kept and not broken.