Resolutions are popular because everyone feels they could use a little improvement. – Marilu Henner
A New Year’s resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to one or more lasting personal goals, projects, or the reforming of a habit.
Could your life use some improvement in 2012? YES, 99.9% of living, breathing humans would agree with this statement.
Some of the more popular goals are:
- Improve health (exercise more & better, eat less, drink less, stop smoking, etc.)
- Improve finances (get out of debt, begin saving, live on a budget, establish a financial plan)
- Improve career (get a better job, get additional education and/or training)
- Improve self (more organization, less stress, less TV time. read more books, etc.)
- Improve spiritually (begin attending church, read Bible daily, share my faith)
Can you really change yourself? YES, 1 in 2 were confident they could, but only 1 in 8 were successful in achieving there resolutions. The odds may seem to be stacked against you, there are some traits those who were successful shared.
- Break the resolution (goal) into bite size increments. If the resolution is to read more books, then break it down into how many books per year, and how much reading (time or pages) you will do every week. Now you have 52 smaller weekly reading goals that will help you achieve your bigger goal.
- Share your resolution with others (accountability). You resolve to improve your health by exercising 4 hours a week, eating healthier so you lose 2 lbs per month. Find a friend, relative or neighbor who you can confide in about your resolution and who will help you work through the year long process. A walking partner? Someone to share healthy recipes with? Someone to go grocery shopping with?
- Establish a game plan for achieving your resolution. Specifically, how will you achieve your resolution? if you resolve is to pay off (or down) your debts, how will you do this? How much extra money will be diverted toward paying off these debts? Where will the money come from? Where are you today (assets vs. liabilities)? The difference between achieving goals, and dreaming about achieving goals… making the tough choices every day.
Take some time to sit down and put in writing some goals for 2012. THEN, follow the 3 steps above to put yourself on the path to improving your life in 2012. Don’t worry if you fail to achieve every goal, the fact is that by establishing goals you are far ahead of most people who spend lots of time complaining about their lot in life… yet have no plan for changing.
Most people have good intentions, big dreams… yet most people fail to achieve these dreams. The key to succeeding is not lack of failure (we all fail), but achievers get up (not give up) from failing, set a new goal (learning from their failure) and press on.
Make 2012 the year that BIG changes were birthed in your life!
Dave
God on Money 