Strategy to Keep your New year’s Resolutions

The statistics on New Year’s resolutions are pretty dismal: As few as 2 percent of resolution-setters actually achieve their goals by the year’s end, we’ve heard.

No matter what your goals, we want to help you achieve them.

Organize yourself for success.

Take time to evaluate last year. Make a list of the things that went well and those that didn’t.

Take a moment to celebrate your successes. Then consider why you were successful. What lessons can you extract from failures?

Write down your goals in a notebook.

The few minutes it takes to consider and physically write something down is the minimum length of time necessary for thought to be processed as a lasting, more easily retrievable memory, neuroscientists say. Writing also helps you focus.

Keep your written goals where you can see and review them at the start of every day. Script your moves for the first 30 days. Shifting momentum is often the most difficult part of making a fresh start. Make it easier on yourself by assigning one to-do each day for the first month, so all you have to do is follow the path you’ve already charted.

Start small. Make one goal for each week. Break your big goal into four weekly goals for each month.

Plan to fail. That sounds depressing, but it’s not. Nobody is perfect. The key to success is expecting failure and planning ways to bounce back from it.

As few as 2 percent of resolution-setters actually achieve their goals by year’s-end.

Try some if/then statements. New York University psychology researchers have verified the power of simple if/then statements in getting people to follow through on their intentions. For example, if weight loss is your goal, repeat to yourself this kind of statement: “If I go to a restaurant tonight for dinner, then I will order a salad.” You might surprise yourself when you order a salad, as if on autopilot.

Stoke your emotional attachment to your goals. Put up quotes and images on a bulletin board. Keep them handy so that when you are tempted, you can look at something and immediately feel a strong sense of connection to your end goal.

Pick one or two metrics to measure and track your progress every day. Look back at your progress each week and month — and celebrate!

Make a public statement. There’s nothing like committing to a goal publicly to keep you honest. Post on your Facebook wall, send an email to friends and family, or tell all of your colleagues what you are going to accomplish, by when. Encourage them to check in on you and heckle you if you are not living up to your end of the bargain.

Pat yourself on the back once a week. It can be easy to get swept up in busyness. But celebrating your progress each week is critical to staying on track. Take five minutes every Friday afternoon or Sunday evening and write down at least three things you did (or learned) that brought you closer to your intended goal.

Don’t compare yourself or your rate of progress to anyone else. Focus instead on doing the best you can do today.

Reward your self-control. Keep a little sticker or star chart on an index card you can keep your wallet.If you don’t have one, improvise and make your own index card!

Every time you exercise self-control related to your goal, give yourself a star. Each time you hit a certain number of stars, say 10, reward yourself with something like a pedicure (if you are man reading this, you’ll be surprise the number of men going to the pedicure lately! ) …or just get yourself a yummy smoothie.

Find someone successful to imitate. Repeat, repeat, repeat. Repeating tasks is the way to mastery. Repeat one or two of the same tasks crucial to your desired change each and every week. Before you know it, you’ll be able to do these on autopilot.