Tips for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

A New Year is around the corner. Now is the time for new beginnings. 2008 is full of potential. It will be as grand as you make it. Embrace the opportunity for change.

As you thoughtfully make a list of your New Year's resolutions for 2008, consider setting new goals, breaking old habits, and growing socially, emotionally, and intellectually.

Admittedly, it's easier to make resolutions than to keep them. By following a few simple strategies, you can ensure yourself a greater chance to succeed.

1. Set reasonable resolutions.
Yearly resolutions and lifetime goals are different things. You should have both. However, realize what is reasonable within a year versus what you expect to achieve in a lifetime.

Allow for life circumstances and unforeseen set-backs. Give yourself enough breathing room to set resolutions that are attainable. Things which seem outside your grasp probably are not, but you have to know how many baby steps it takes to get to your long term goal. Dissolution will take your resolutions captive if they are too big for the year ahead.

2. Set challenging New Year's resolutions.
Don't set your resolutions beyond your grasp, but don't underestimate your potential for the New Year, either. Make sure your resolutions challenge you to grow or change in some way. Resolutions should force you to move outside your comfort zone, learn something new, or try something different help you grow. If your goals aren't challenging, then they aren't worth making. You don't need to plan to maintain the status quo.

3. Write your resolutions.
It is easier to keep a resolution when you can refer back to it in writing. See them in black and white. Writing helps lodge your resolutions in your memory. A written list of your New Year's resolutions helps you keep yourself accountable.