6 Steps to Making Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

Happy New Year’s Resolution

It is that time of year when many people are offering time management, organizing, scheduling, or get into action training. You need help making your New Year’s resolution stick. So, you either pay someone to mentor or coach you or you buy a program thinking you can do it on your own. Sometimes, the best-laid plans do not pan out. It is easy to start something, but not always easy to maintain.

I find that even if I pay someone, it does not seem to last. The desire to accomplish things has to come from within. There has to be pleasure or pain associated with what you want to accomplish. You must create that environment. Hopefully, you will choose pleasure, but sometimes pain is needed.

Do Not Go It Alone

Back in the day, there used to be sewing circles or baking days where people got together to teach, encourage and offer accountability. Most often, it was others who had gone before that helped the next person. And while I am not a fan of the show or movie Sex in the City, it is an example of friends who meet regularly, hold each other accountable and call each other out when they are messing up, or they cry with each other.

I remember attending a women’s retreat where the speaker talked about learning to carry each other’s burdens, support one another, and cry with one another. Sometimes you just need a good cry and a friend to sit with you. Other times, you need a kick in the tush to get going. Good friends are helpful that way. However, in a transient and busy society, you may not have friends available.

Now we have Meetup, Facebook, and other social media sites to help bridge the gap. I recently joined a Meetup group for specifics in business. I am attending my first meeting next week and hope it helps with ideas, accountability for certain things I want to accomplish, and offers fellowship with like-minded people. I think the “pleasure” of meeting with others to work on these specific business tasks will be what it takes to help. I will let you know how it goes in a few weeks.

Update: It is a great group and I am enjoying our once a month networking, training, and support.

Get Into A Routine

The New Year is a great time to start! There was a discussion on one of my Facebook groups about keeping up on mileage. My response was, “Build it into your routine: Buckle seatbelt, write down odometer number, where you are going, what for, and with whom. Get back home, unbuckle seatbelt, and write down odometer reading. Tada!” Now come up with a reminder trigger. Maybe put some obnoxious dangling item on your keychain so when you see it you will remember?

The pain associated with not doing this was the multitude of hours people in the group spent catching up on mileage at the end of the year.

What does getting into a routine look like?

Bite Size Pieces

Each year people create grandiose plans and goals only to fizzle out part way through. However, if you take each plan or goal and create tiny, manageable steps, you can have success.

Because we moved, we are in a completely different environment and have to create a routine from scratch. Here is what I have done and am doing to create the environment of pain or pleasure to achieve success:

1. Monitored what my current routine is so as to figure out the best time for each task.
2. Listed in my planner all that I want to accomplish and things I “want” to do. (Brain dump)
3. Added an accountability partner. (This is HUGE! Just talking things through, helps. I’m usually everyone else’s accountability partner.)
4. Am breaking number 2 items into bite size pieces that are manageable and attainable and giving myself grace if I don’t hit the mark.
5. Put reminders with alerts on my electronic calendar.
6. Created a Busy Woman Accountability and Support group on Facebook.

What are you waiting for? Try these 6 Steps to Making Your New Year’s Resolution Stick

1. Monitor your routine.
2. Create your list.
3. Ask for help. Join our group.
4. Break items into bite size pieces.
5. Set reminders that alert you.
6. Ask for help.

Have anything to add to the list? Comment below.
Cheers!