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A Beginner's Guide to Making (and Keeping) Resolutions

Only 9 % of people who make new year’s resolutions see them through to the end. Read this guide to help you choose the right resolutions and achieve your goals.

A Beginner's Guide to Making (and Keeping) Resolutions

Most people have made new year's resolutions, but never really set themselves up for success and a follow-through. Read these tips to help you make the right kind of resolutions and how to stick to your guns.

Why new year’s resolutions fail

The secret to good new year’s resolution success is to set a meaningful and attainable goal. Sure, it sounds grand to say 'I’m going to do the New York marathon this year.' But if you actually really don’t like the idea of waking up at the crack of dawn to stand in a surging crowd of other marathon runners, then maybe that isn’t the right resolution for you. There are heaps of other ways to be fit and healthy. Here are three reasons why new year’s resolutions fail.

  1. Your new year’s resolutions ideas are based on something that society or other people expect of you and not something that you want for yourself.
  2. The resolution is not clear enough.
  3. You don’t have a clear idea of how to achieve your goal.

Good new year’s resolution solutions

Try these five tips for helping you achieve new year’s resolution success

1.  Be specific

Have a defined, concrete goal to aim towards. Rather than saying, 'I want to lose weight', say 'I want to lose # pounds'.

2. Break your goal up into bite-size pieces

Rome wasn’t built in a day. You don’t have to go from totally unfit to running a 10k race by the end of January. Set yourself smaller goals along the way to achieving your ultimate goal.

3. Measure your success

Your new year’s resolution ideas should ideally be measurable. Tracking your progress is important for staying focused and motivated to achieve your goals. With saving money, fitness, and weight loss goals, it can be easy to track your progress. However, with other goals like getting more sleep or reducing stress, the success parameters may be a little trickier to define. It will help tremendously if you can determine beforehand how you will measure your progress toward success.

4. Relevant resolutions

Make sure that you can get totally on board with the resolution that you want to make. It should be something that really matters to you. A goal that you are making for yourself and not for others.

5. Realistic time-frame

Allow yourself sufficient time to achieve your resolutions.

By the yard, life is hard. By the inch, life’s a cinch

Making healthy, sustainable changes in your life takes effort, which can overwhelm you. Hopefully, these guidelines will help you make the most of your good new year's resolutions. If not, remember to be gentle with yourself. If you don’t get it done this year, there is always next year! If saving money is one of your resolutions, download the save.com coupon book finder to discover deals and savings in your neighborhood.