Do you have goals for the year? Goals that you want to accomplish, but those resolutions seem to be suffering and taking too long? Then here is some advice that might help: add significance to your new year's resolutions. This advice comes from a course of blog posts about this author's own struggles and improvements in dealing with personal problems, so ultimately it can be helpful for anyone else as well. Here is a list of 37 different suggestions from his blog posts.
1) Give your goals a name.
Why: Your brain is more likely to remember something with a name, and you can easily keep track of how well you are doing with each goal by just remembering the name.
2) Invent and give names to milestones for your goal
Why: Another reason why making goals specific might help is that if you see progress or lack thereof, you might be more likely to keep on trying. This is like exercising ; if you thought that going running for an hour would make a difference, but then you don't see results for a long time (at least not in the time frame that you expected), then you can get discouraged from continuing. However, if you divided the time into ten minute intervals, and then each time you complete one interval, that might be an easier way to stay motivated.
3) Time your activities for your goals
Why: When you time your activities for your goals, it helps you remember to actually do them. It also helps in the ability of one activity to lead directly into another; you are less likely to procrastinate because you know that the activity that comes next must be done within a certain amount of time after this one. And this is also true for any type of goal: exercise, practice a musical instrument , study , etcetera.
4) Set up "If and When" statements for your goals
Why: When writing out your goals, work into it that if you do activity x, then you will do y and z. For example, "if I wake up at 6 am tomorrow then I will exercise first thing." Or alternatively, "I will exercise after work." This way you can make a plan in advance so that you don't have to make the decision on the day whether or not to exercise; it has already been decided ahead of time.
5) Schedule your goals
Why: If you schedule your goals and set reminders, it makes it more likely that you will actually follow them and accomplish them.
6) Make a contract with yourself
Why: Make some sort of agreement or contract with yourself and then sign it. This way you can hold yourself accountable to the goals that you have set for yourself because if you break the contract, then you are breaking a promise to yourself. Wherever possible, make sure that the agreement has consequences if not met, so that there is a disincentive for not following through on your aims .
7) Give yourself a time limit
Why: If you have a certain time limit to accomplish the goals that you have set out for yourself, then this can increase your concentration on those goals and can make it more likely that you will accomplish them.
8) Divide your goals into small steps daily
Why: This is similar to giving yourself a time limit for accomplishing a goal. You are breaking down the goal into smaller parts and it is easier to focus on doing one step at a time. Then once you have accomplished each step, you can feel proud of that accomplishment and this will help keep you motivated towards what could have otherwise been an overwhelming goal.