Resolutions Shmesolutions?

Now that we are a few weeks into the New Year... has anyone kept their resolutions? If you are the "making resolutions" type, always trying to better yourself and this universe, good on ya! There's a famous struggle that many people who commit to resolutions encounter... failure! Sometimes the plan to carry out the resolution may have a few characteristics that lead to "falling off the wagon" and leaving it to next year :)

A top ten list compiled by About.com of the most popular New Year's Resolutions:

1. Spend more time with family and friends- always a great goal to have when starting the New Year!

2. Fit in fitness- getting rid of the "I'm too busy to exercise" theory is a tough thing to kick!

3. Tame the bulge- yes, their words!

4. Quit smoking- definitely a goal in need of an effective plan...

5. Enjoy life more- a lot of das go by without appreciation and enjoyment! But how??

6. Quit drinking- after the holiday season it would be fitting for most... :P

7. Get out of debt- a strong goal to tackle in one year for most people, but productive habits can arise from this one!

8. Learn something new- always important to stretch your mind!

9. Help others- something this world needs a lot more of!

10. Get organized- once tackled, this can be INCREDIBLY rewarding!

New Year's resolutions are usually intended to be SUSTAINABLE and LIFE CHANGING... but when taken on with a whole bunch of other changes, without a plan, or cold turkey... they can become quite daunting, stressful, and lead to failure... failure leads to self-loathin,g self-loathing does NOT lead to anything productive! So how can we make these goals achievable? Let's explore!

The New Year always sneaks up on me some time after Christmas right before going back to work, and I am never ready to make a meaningful resolution and create a practical action plan. I never end up creating a resolution at all... this year I may be a bit late, but better late than never, right? And maybe his time, I will be able to carry out this resolution... we'll see.

LET'S MAKE THE WORLD A BETTER PLACE! Starting with our lives!

How can we keep resolutions? Ahhh... the age old question... For decades, studies, theories and programs have been developed to help people keep resolutions and stick to a plan, especially when attempting to achieve difficult goals. In North America, I would associate the aforementioned top ten list with the most difficult goals to achieve. Today we are taking helpful pieces from several recommendations to compile a helpful tool for us all to stick to goals that are important for us to achieve!

What can we do to make our plans more successful?

Really important from my experience: WHY are we trying to achieve this goal resolution? What are the consequences of failing to achieve this goal? What are the benefits of overcoming this challenge? It is much easier to attain a goal when the benefits of successfully im[plementing the change into our lives have been comsciously examined and contemplated~

Planning ahead helps us prepare physically and mentally for executing and successfully creating new habits and kicking old nasty ones! Throughout the busy holiday season, try taking some time to think about this! Or... if you're a "plan ahead" type of person, try thinking about it earlier!

When planning, setting short term goals and "checkpoints" may be helpful in actually creating habits that become part of our daily life.

When creating a plan, making sure that small steps are introduced into our existing lifestyle may help in creating a long-asting plan to achieve your goals as well! It has been discussed often that it's easier to make small changes at a time when trying to implement long term changes!

Track progress frequently... integrate some sort of appropriate progress method into your daily or weekly life in order to keep track of your sucesses and areas that you need to improve.

It takes at least 21 days to create a new habit in our lives, so if the first month is a little rocky, we need to understand that our body/mind has not learned the habit yet! Once in the habit, it is MUCH easier to maintain! Giving ourselves rewards or positive reinforcement for sticking to the plan will help us associate the successful development and implementation of our new habit with positive things and encourage us to keep going!

If this spring you have found that you have not kept on track... try again! Spring is a good time to do cleaning in your life! There's no RULE that bettering yourself can only happen at the signal of the New Year! Keep hope!

And a little encouragement from Fighting Footprints... please always consider your footprint on this beautiful earth when doing so!

Wishing you all the best in twenty ten,

Chanel and Heather :)

Photo from: Edgewater Technology Weblog