Why your New Years Resolutions won’t stick

For most, the New Year means new goals, fresh ideas and bags of excitement but by the time February comes, we’ve fallen back into our old ways and our New Years resolutions seem like a distant memory.   Many people evaluate their life at the end of the year and have the irresistible urge to make life changes on January 1st.

This method of changing old habits and setting new patterns is a sure fire way to set us up for failure. We set our self high expectations, we have to give things up and we can become judgmental about our failures from previous years.  On top of that there is the natural fear and resistance to change that we have all experienced at some point in our lives.

Mix up these factors and you’ve already set negative emotions which become stumbling blocks around our will power and good intentions. And I don’t know about you but the older I get, the less my willpower seems to want to co-operate! 

I remember only to well the goals I half heartedly set in the past hoping to get started on New Years day, only to have fallen at the first hurdle, normally experiencing failure by 3rd or 4th of January!!  No wonder the New Year stops being fun and filled with excitement before we reach February. 

So rather than wait for 2010 to arrive, take some time to write out your goals for next year.  Instead of relying on your willpower to get you through, set your goals with meaning and value, ask yourself questions like, ‘what’s my why, why do I want to achieve these goals?’.  If you’ve tried before and not succeeded ask, ‘why has this failed in previous years, what can I do differently this time?’, go beyond the want and write down the benefits you’ll experience when you achieve your goal and what are the benefits to others.  The more benefits there are, the more reasons you have to achieve it.  Find yourself an accountability partner, a mentor or support group, so you have people to help guide your through your growth.

Start giving your goals focus and attention NOW and before you know it some of you will have achieved them before the New Year even gets here.

Here’ to a successful 2010, I’ve written out my goals, have you?!