It’s a brand new year. Surely, before 2018 ended, you made a list of things to accomplish as well as plans and resolutions for 2019. You are also proud of yourself for aiming for those goals and promised to do whatever it takes to make sure these resolutions will come to life. After all, at the end of the day, all you want is a better future for you and your family that is why you outlined those goals.
The first week has been great and so far, you’re on the right track. The question now is whether or not you can sustain this until December 31, 2019.
Of course you can! Here are tips that will ensure that you can stick to your 2019 goals and resolutions before 2020:
Write your 2019 resolutions.
Yes, it is old school, but it still an effective ways to make sure that you’ll make it before the clock strikes at 12 midnight on December 31. As odd as it sounds, writing your resolutions for the year has higher effectiveness rate than just relying on your mind.
Keep those resolutions simple and attainable.
One of the reasons why New Year’s resolutions are not sustained is because you set unrealistic and impossible to attain goals. Forget that.
What you need to do is to keep your resolutions simple and attainable. Instead of aiming for a complete overhaul of your lifestyle, target one to two habits first and then move on to the next. Instead of aiming to reach one million by the end of the year when you don’t have savings yet, keep it realistic and target at least P100K.
The point is the simpler and more attainable your goals are, the easier for you to make these happen.
Daily action is key.
You can’t attain something without putting 100 percent effort to it. This means you need to outline steps you need to take everyday to make sure that by the end of the year, you will stick to those goals and resolutions.
What you can do is schedule your activities for the week to help you attain those resolutions. For instance, you promised to save P100K by the end of the year. Before the week starts, finalize your raket/s (apart from your main job, of course) and the amount you are expecting that could help add up to your savings.
Breakdown your one big goal to smaller goals.
Let’s go back to P100k savings for 2019. It’s easy to say you want to save that much but how do you plan on achieving that goal?
This is why it is important to make manageable action chunks from that one big goal. It is easier to make those resolutions happen because you are more focused and at the same time, there is a higher chance that you will achieve it.
So how do you plan on achieving the P100k savings? You could start by looking for sidelines. To get a sideline, you set aside one day to look for part-time jobs or ask friends around if they know someone who could find your skills useful.
The bottom line is start small to help you supplement that one big goal.
Track your progress.
This is important. You’ll never know whether or not you are making progress if you don’t track it, right?
Establish a system that will help you record the progress you’re making or check whether or not you’re done with this particular daily action. This way, you can easily see what areas you need to work on and whether you could make those resolutions happen.
Always focus on the positive.
We understand. There are days when you won’t be able to stick to your daily goals and it will make you feel bad. That’s fine.
Instead of worrying about those missed days, focus on the positive side, say the fact that you are making progress with your savings or the sideline you just booked this coming weekend. If you look at the negative side, your perception towards your 2019 goals could change and may compromise the things you want to achieve.
At the end of the day, it’s also about discipline, mindset, and your willingness to make your 2019 resolutions happen. When you establish that, then you are set for the rest of the year – and beyond.