Every December millions of us decide on our resolutions for the year ahead. However, even by mid-January many of these resolutions will already have been broken with only a small percentage of people, around 8%, making lasting changes. What sets the people who find success apart and what can you do to make 2017 the year where you achieve what you set out to do?
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Zero In On What You Want
You need to be laser focused on what you want to achieve. A key factor in your success will be to make one resolution a priority and forget about any less important aims until another time. Once you have succeeded in one area, then often associated areas of your life will improve naturally anyway. For example, if you make eating healthily a focus in 2017 you will probably also lose weight and have more energy.
Treat Resolutions Like Goals
A resolution is just another name for a goal and therefore it will have a better chance of success if it has SMART attributes.
In addition, research has shown that those who write down their goals, and review them regularly, have a much higher chance of achieving their aims.Whether you choose to journal, use a phone app or mark your goals on a calendar, seeing them in black and white will set you on the path to success.
Take the Path of Least Resistance
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Just because you have set a resolution it doesn’t mean you have to suffer to achieve it. Many of us seem to make our lives more difficult, rather than making choices which would give us a higher success rate.
Quitting smoking is one resolution set by many and while this can be a difficult process there are ways to ease nicotine withdrawal. Nicotine patches and gum are one option but a great alternative is to turn to vaping. Not only do e-cigarettes allow you to decrease nicotine levels slowly but they also allow you the psychological enjoyment of smoking, without the negatives of tobacco. There are also a great range of eliquid flavours to choose from which can accommodate to your taste.
Eating healthily and getting more exercise can also be approached in a more gentle way. Crowd out the bad elements in your diet by eating more of the good stuff. This not only helps to keep hunger at bay but also improves nutrition levels, giving you extra energy. You can do the same with exercise by building it into your day through walking or cycling, without having to pay for expensive gym memberships.
Public Accountability
The final element is making other people aware of what you are doing so you have an extra incentive to stay on track. There’s a lot to be said for public accountability and you can achieve this through gaining support from friends and family.
You can even take this further by joining an online group or tracking your results through an app and then sharing them on social media. Connecting with others who are going through the same thing can be helpful as you can not only commiserate with each other on the struggles but also celebrate each other’s success.
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