New Year's Resolution #3: Achieving "Overwhelming" Goals

Minnetonka residents have New Year's resolutions on the brain. This week, Minnetonka Patch is going to look at the top resolutions and give you tips to achieve them. Today's tips look at ways to make resolutions easier to keep.

 'Tis the season for joking about New Year's resolutions that never make it off the tarmac.  But are there ways to make our resolutions more possible to keep?  Patch sought out Minnetonka's LeAnn Riley, a Master Life Coach at Affluent Choice, to uncover secrets to attainable resolutions for the coming year.  Here are her tips for bringing your resolutions within reach.

• The goal of your resolution needs to be heart-centered, something you truly desire. 

It can't be a "should," as in, "I should lose 30 pounds."  Ask yourself how interested you are in accomplishing this resolution (on a scale from 1 to 10).  Your answer has to be at least a seven on the scale, and preferably be a nine or a ten, for you to be interested enough to achieve it.  If your answer is less than seven, pick another resolution. 

Your resolution has to come from a real desire, from the heart.  Use your resolution as a way to add zest to your life.  If you are using a heart-centered approach to your resolution, you are upping the zest in your life, getting closer to your core being.

• Be specific. 

Describe exactly what the goal of your resolution is, what you will do to reach the goal, and by when.  Let's say the goal is to organize an office.  Specifically, every file drawer needs to be cleaned out, and the desktop must be cleared off and cleaned.  But until clarifying by when this will be done, the goal is still vague.  Specify by when, an actual date, when your office desk and all file drawers will be organized.  

• Be realistic and make the resolution measurable. 

Your resolution needs to be attainable.  "Read 40 books by the end of the month," is measurable, but probably unattainable.  "I'm going to love my kids more," won't work because it's not measurable.  "I will kiss my kids twice a day," is specific, attainable and measurable.

• Break the goal down into bite-size pieces. 

Once you arrive at a clear and realistic resolution, map out your plan of action.  For example, if you desire to lose ten pounds, action steps in your plan might include your target calorie intake per day, time on aerobic exercise, etc.  In the office organization example, action steps might call for completion of one file drawer each week, and the desktop cleared and cleaned in the final week.  Be specific about what will be accomplished by the end of each week, with actual dates noted until all tasks are addressed that add up to your desired end.

• Verify your resolution and track weekly progress. 

Tell someone what your resolution is, and by when you want to reach it.  This may be a family member, a trusted friend, or a life coach.  Spelling out all the details to them is a great idea. Write out your resolution. (Riley uses index cards, and suggests placing your written resolution where you will see it regularly in front of you, perhaps framing it.)  You can promise yourself you will clean out that office, drop ten pounds, or substitute in your own resolution.  But by telling someone else, and by writing it down, you have more of an investment in reaching your goal.  Telling a family member can empower them so that they can help you. 

Then, you need to track your progress.  At the end of each week, see how you did on your action steps.  If you fall down one week, you know how to start again the next day.  Tell a family member, friend or coach how you did.  If you report your progress to them once a week you'll get there.  This is the reason why folks who have coaches get there, and get there faster; because someone is holding them to their own plan.  (Riley has an "accountability call" with her "accountability coach" every week.) 

• To err is human.

The biggest pitfall is that most of us slip up.  This is how we get stopped.  But this is human.  Forgive yourself and start again from there.  Instantly recognize when negative self-talk occurs, and read your goal again.  This is why we need to have our resolutions written down, so that we can get back to them.

Involving others for camaraderie or inspiration, such as a walking buddy, can be a positive support.  I am organizing a party on New Years Day for folks to reflect on accomplishments at the completion of 2010, and for setting their desired personal theme in looking forward to the coming year.  Creation of a theme for the year differs from a goal in being an overriding umbrella area that you want to carry for growth throughout the year.  Growth themes are individual.  A few examples of themes are "leadership through loving empowerment," or  "communicating from the heart with trust."

Making a heart-centered resolution or theme addresses something that has been niggling at you for awhile, and that comes from that part of our spirit where we know our own answers.  A coach helps in discovering your own answers.