5 Key Questions to Help You Achieve Your New Year’s Resolution

It’s important to spend time recognizing what your experience will be when you have accomplished your goal.  Perhaps your goal is to lose weight, earn more money, go back to school, change jobs, start a business or go on a trip. What will you be seeing, hearing and feeling when it is achieved?  A little secret…the experience is actually what you want in your life.  Every day you can visualize, hear, feel this experience quietly for a few minutes.

Once you know what the experience you want to have is, ask yourself why you want to achieve it. Sit down for ten minutes and answer this question multiple times – to help get to the deeper reason for your New Year’s resolution. If you run into moments of struggle as you work towards your goal, this deeper reason will help to remind you of its importance.  Then, spend a moment reconnecting to the experience you want to have. Hint:

The deeper reason will come from your heart – a place of compassion, love and care.

Many resolutions are set with no specific timeframe to accomplish them. This is a key reason for why they are go unfulfilled. Set a realistic timeframe.  If it is going to take you 6 to 12 months, break down your goal into monthly, weekly and daily mini goals.  What small step can I do each day to help me reach my goal? If you don’t meet your goal in the timeframe set, it is not a reason to give up. It is a clue that your timeframe was not realistic. Reset your timeframe to something more feasible. If challenges arise, review #1 and #2.

How many times have you set a goal and then eventually a thought came to mind about how impossible it was to achieve, or you had moments of nervousness or stress related to it. Commit to noticing your thoughts and feelings with regard to your resolution. Write them down when they occur.  Read them to yourself.  How do you feel after reading them? Are they actually true?  Which ones are helpful and which ones are not? What could be another reason for having these thoughts and feelings?

Success is more likely when you seek help to achieve your goals. Even Olympic athletes need coaching to achieve a high level of performance. How comfortable are you with asking for help? If you reflect back on previous resolutions, what help did you access to achieve your goal? What would be the benefit of asking for help with your current resolution? Who would you go to for help or what type of help do you need to research and find?  If you want to lose weight, what nutritionist and/or personal trainer could you contact? If you want to change careers or be happier at work, do you have employee benefits to help with this? If you are struggling with stress, self-esteem and/or anxiety, how can you find a coach to help you?