With each New Year comes the promise of a clean slate, an easy way to ‘start over’ and renew.  We want to commit to those things that fell by the wayside in the year prior.  We get excited and motivated, but after the glow of the holidays is gone – it’s back to our normal routine, the daily chaos sets in, we have good days and bad days and we lose site of that New Year promise.

Don’t beat yourself up, it happens – it’s life.  How can you ensure that you have accountability and follow through with your inspired New Year’s Goals so that you can ultimately achieve the results you desire?

Grab yourself a notebook and take some time to reflect on the following:

1.  Is your resolution realistic, specific and achievable? What about your strategy for achieving it? Simply saying, “I want to lose weight” isn’t specific enough.

• How much weight do you want to lose?  Be really specific.  Take that total amount and break it down even further, by the week or by the month – whatever makes sense for you.

• How do you want to change your diet?  Go gluten free?  Eliminate sugar?  Or simply make sure you commit to your daily water in take.

• What is your plan for exercise?  How often and what?  Does Zumba make you happy, simple walks clear your mind?  Make it fun for you to ensure you will stick with it.

The key is to be really specific and make your goals realistic.  To say you are going to go from never working out to working out 7 days a week – 2 hours a day is probably not realistic.  Remember, start small and commit – when you see results you will be truly empowered and can ramp up your goals even further.

2.   How can you keep your goals top-of-mind?  Write down your goals in a journal.  Be sure to really reflect on how it would feel to achieve this goal.  How would you physically feel?  What would you look like?  How would you feel emotionally?  Visualize yourself in this space of achieving success!

Post-it notes are another fun and simple way to keep your goals (and encouraging thoughts top-of-mind).  You can place these on the bathroom mirror, on the refrigerator, and in your car.  The more repetition the better! Set reminders on your phone to keep yourself in check.   When your goals are visible, you’re more likely to take action, follow through and hold yourself accountable. 

3.  How about accountability?  This piece is HUGE, so do not leave it out!  Who in your life can hold you accountable?  This could be your spouse, a friend, a co-worker, or a coach.

Think about an NFL quarterback, he isn’t just out there on the field alone winning games.  He studies, practices and works with numerous coaches and teammates.

An accountability partner can cheer with you when you have success, but then encourage you and empathize with you when you are down.  This is a sounding board for you to express your challenges and struggles, but also share your successes.

4.  Begin & End the Day with a Positive Mindset. Condition yourself to commit to re-affirming your goal before your feet even hit the floor for the day.  Set the intention to create the results you desire each and everyday.  How do you want to feel for the day?  What thoughts do you want to have to help you achieve your goal?

On the flip side, end your day in a similar fashion, but celebrate your successes.  Have a challenging day?  Yeah!  These are the days where we have the opportunity for the most growth.  In the challenging times, really reflect on the positive that you can take from the situation and turn that challenge into an opportunity for growth.  The lesson is there, I swear!

5.  Be Flexible and Cut Yourself a Break.  Give yourself permission to be flexible and tweak things as you go.  It’s better to realize that you need to make change and adjust than to give up altogether.

A football team that goes into half time down 21 – 0 certainly doesn’t come out and not make half time adjustments.  They get a ‘pep talk’ (ok a BIG one) and make the necessary adjustments.  You can, too!  It’s okay!

Seeing your New Year’s Goals through is absolutely possible! Just apply the above strategies: make it realistic, specific, and achievable, keep your goals top-of-mind, find an accountability partner, work on your mindset, and be flexible!

Put these into practice and you will be well on your way to your best year yet – full of success, growth, and satisfaction.

You can do it!