What is the Secret of Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution?

When I asked this question on Facebook, people’s response was a resounding – Don’t make any! That makes sense: upwards of 78% of people report that they fail in fulfilling their resolutions. Every time we fail our self-confidence and self–worth takes a beating.  Sometimes it’s easier just not to try and not to be disappointed.

I’m here to tell you don’t give up and don’t despair on making the New Year a better year. 

Here are the;

3 Secrets to Keeping Your New Year’s Resolution

1)     Make sure your resolution is reasonable. Which means you need to:

a)     Have a precedent for it being successful:  A proper resolution should not be a fantasy. It should be a specific goal that you can clearly visualize yourself accomplishing.  The best way to do this is identify things that you have successfully done in the past and then do them a little bigger and a little better.  After you have success, you will open other avenues for yourself in the future.

b)     A reasonable resolution should focus on your actions and attitudes and require very little from other people: If your success in your goal relies too much on others, you can’t take full responsibility for fulfilling it.  Even worse, if you aren’t successful, it becomes tempting to blame others for your failure.  That is a whole other problem.

2)     Make sure that you are using positive social pressure:  Everyone needs “A little help from your friends”.  This is why the Talmud prohibits us from separating ourselves from the community and commands us to move away from an evil neighbor. We need an encouraging community to accomplish our most meaningful pursuits. For example, if this is the year you want to get into shape, get an exercise partner or join communityofmovement.com, but do something where you are engaging others in your goal.

3)     You must receive benefit from the resolution soon after you begin it:  People don’t stick with things that they don’t enjoy very long.  Find away to get pleasure out of the process, not just the accomplishment.  This might mean rewarding yourself with things along the way just to keep you motivated.  Judaism teaches that it is better to do the right thing for the wrong reason, than not to do the right thing at all. 

One last secret:  Personally, I always pray for help in accomplishing anything important.  The G-d factor is huge.  With His help, everything is possible.

Enjoy your successes and let me know how it goes!