“… Five… FOUR… THREE… TWO… ONE… HAPPY NEW YEAR!”

In the euphoria of New Year’s celebrations, with emotions ranging from renewed hope to new beginnings, we make New Year’s goals.  These goals bring with them the hope of following through with them and enjoying the fruits of our success.

However, an all-too-common dilemma to many of us is that these resolutions end up being forgotten, given up on, or just not attempted. According to a University of Scranton Journal of Clinical Psychology survey, only 8% of people who set resolutions achieve them.  Seeing such a low success rate, one cannot help but wonder why it is that we fail–are we just lazy or unprepared?

The real problem lies in ill-conceived goals that lead to broken promises.   We tend to set resolutions that may be unrealistic or, as Psychology Today writes, “out of alignment with our internal view.”

So how do we go about setting more realistic goals, and what more may be needed to achieve these goals? There are three steps to achieve your goals. The first is to make sure your goals are attainable and measurable.  For example, one of the more common goals is to lose weight.  It would be better to state a number of pounds you want to lose rather than just have a vague goal to simply “lose weight.”  The next is to track your progress either by keeping a calendar, using a planner, or finding some other way to track your progress.  The last approach is to share your goals with close family and friends for support.

Just remember that you are human and resolutions can sometimes fall by the wayside; that’s just a part of being human.  If so, don’t get discouraged–you always have next year.