New Year’s Resolutions often focus on improvements to our health and fitness. But with most resolutions being broken before the end of January how can we stay motivated when the odds are stacked against us?

If you have failed at keeping your New Year’s Resolutions in the past our top 10 tips for setting successful resolutions may help you to make 2018 a year full of success!

Rebecca Sanderson is a Mindset Coach and an expert in helping people to set and achieve their goals whether they be to lose weight, increase motivation levels, or improve fitness. 

Changes to diet can be especially difficult at this time of year because the lack of daylight impacting the amount of vitamin D and serotonin levels means it can be very hard to stay motivated and on track with our health and fitness goals.

 

Top 10 Tips For Setting Successful New Year’s Resolutions:

  

1. Have just one New Year’s resolution.

Having a long list of New Year’s resolutions is making things really tough for yourself. Choose one really important goal that matters to you. You will increase your chance of success. You can have short and long term goals but an overarching big goal should be the end target.

 

2. Write your goal down.

There is a great deal of research to support the fact that those who write their goals down increase their chances of sticking to them. Entrepreneur, Richard Branson always writes down his goals. Make sure you keep track of the progress you are making with your New Year’s Resloutions. It will help motivate you and will also help you evaluate how much you have achieved so you can feel good about your achievements.

 

3. Be realistic

Aim high but be realistic. For example, many people wanting to achieve weight loss as part of their New Year Resolution’s make drastic changes to their diet. They follow fad or ridiculous diet plans that are going to be really hard to stick to. Choose a healthy eating plan rather than a diet if you want to increase your chances of maintaining your new figure after you have lost weight.

 

4. Have a big enough ‘why’

Make sure your resolution is something you want to achieve. If your goal doesn’t excite you it’s either someone else’s or the goal itself is not big enough!

 

5. Get prepared

The saying if you fail to plan then you plan to fail rings true for many who set New Year’s resolutions. So help yourself to success by creating a plan. For example: If you are hoping to lose weight prepare a weekly meal planner, buy lots of healthy food and prepare your fridge and cupboards for a successful outcome. That pack of biscuits lurking in the back of the cupboard is too tempting. Many supermarkets now have collection boxes for local food banks so take them down there instead.

 

6. Don’t believe your own reasons to stop!

We are very good at justifying why we stop going after what we think we want. “It was the wrong time of year”. “There was too much going on at work”. “My heart just wasn’t in it”. etc. These aren’t reasons these are excuses!

 

7. You can start at any time but…

Choose a date and stick to it. New Year’s Resolutions set after January 1^st are more likely to be achieved. Once you have set the date you can start to prepare yourself.

 

8. Focus on what you want rather than what you don’t want.

For example: If you are planning to eat more healthily focus on what you can eat rather than what can’t. Write a list of all the healthy meals and snacks that you do like so that you can refer to this when hunger strikes. It will also make meal planning and supermarket shopping easier and more efficient.

 

9. Set a new goal as you get close to accomplishing the first one

As you get close to achieving your goal the natural tendency can be to lose momentum. To keep you motivated begin to set another goal to stretch you further just before you achieve the first. For example; if you are close to achieving your ideal weight set yourself another goal to maintain that weight for the next month. Then once you get close to achieving that set another, perhaps to try a different exercise class.

 

10. Share your New Year’s Resolutions with others.

Statistics show that those who make their goals public are more likely to stick to them. Plus, when you get a compliment or encouragement from others you will get a boost of endorphins, the happy hormones, which will feel great!

 

 If you still need help setting and achieving your goals or want to make radical changes The Mindset Clinic can help you. Rebecca Sanderson is a Master Coach of NLP and can help you to lose limiting beliefs that hold you back and sabotage your success. She is a Clinical Hypnotherapist trained in fitting virtual gastric bands to help aid weight loss and offers weight loss hypnosis sessions. Some sessions may be taken via Skype.

 

Make 2018 your best year yet!