How to make Resolutions that you can keep

The book you resolved to complete or the 10 kgs you promised to lose in 2014 didn't happen. So, you just shifted them on to 2015. Did you take a moment to understand why the well-made plans went astray? Simple. Your brain considered this a huge challenge, you get overwhelmed and gradually, you lost hope, focus and track. There is a simple way out of this.

1) Make resolutions you can achieve quickly. Rather than resolving to lose 10 kgs in one year, make a resolution to exercise for at least 30 minutes everyday.

2) Focus on one thing at a time till it becomes a habit. Instead of deciding to remove all junk food from your diet, resolve to remove fizzy sugary drinks in January, then add potato wafers in February and build it up.

3) Focus on things within your circle of influence. Do not aim to get your book published this year. Instead, resolve to write/edit 1000 words everyday to complete the book or to pitch the book to 20 different publishers by the end of the year.

4) Break up tasks to know what to do when. Continuing the above examples, the resolution would now be to write 1000 words in the WIP every day and not a blanket resolution that just states complete the book.

Just before the new year dawned, I decided to do something different and decided to sketch out my resolutions for 2015.

The illustration did get me super-motivated but I realised it didn't have any crystal clear actions to follow. After this, I jumped into the January Jumpstart Challenge at www.sparkpeople,com for health and fitness, joined up My 500 Words #my500words to get me to write a fresh batch of 500 words every day and resolved to edit at least 3000 words of my first draft every week.

Suddenly, things cleared up and it was super easy to follow up. I was making progress and it made me feel that I have achieved something every single day. Believe me, there cannot be a better motivator than that. So, what are your resolutions for 2015? What are your plans on achieving them?