Your New Year’s Resolution Ideas Achieved – Here’s How

You can absolutely positively achieve (almost all of) your New Year’s resolution ideas, and I’ll show you how in a minute.

Of course most of us don’t achieve our New Year resolutions – that’s why we renew them each year. Let’s look at some of the more popular promises we make ourselves, why we fail to honor those promises and then look at a solution.

What are the top New Year’s Resolution ideas?

1.    Learn how to get out of credit card debt fast.

2.    Stop smoking.

3.    Get fit.

4.    Lose weight.

5.    Enjoy life more.

Do any of these resonate with you?  Have you had any of these on your list for more than one year?  “Lose weight” has been on my list for years. Why don’t we achieve our goals?

I believe we set ourselves up for failure the minute we make a resolution.

Why?

Because we are saying, in essence, that we are going to correct some behavior (eating too much, spending too much, whatever) and we are never going to fall back to our naughty old behaviors. I know I’m older than most of you, but “never” still seems like a pretty long time. To give up some behavior forever seems impossible. Sooner or later, we realize it’s too much. We reach for that chocolate brownie or that credit card and we’re right back where we started.  No. It’s no good.

Forever is too much for any of us to commit to.  This is the reason resolutions don’t work. The solution? There is only one solution that I know of, and it’s a very powerful one. And the solution is to live one day at a time and to reframe our New Year’s Resolutions to something achievable that we do daily.

For example, let’s say you want to get out of debt because the financial stress is impacting your money and your marriage.   Rather than make “get out of debt in 2010” your resolution, think about what you have to do on a daily basis to achieve your goals.

Let’s say you come up with the following list of things you have to do in order to get out of debt:

1. Create a reasonable budget – know how much you can afford to spend.
2. Have a system to make sure you live within that budget – use the envelope system if nothing else.
3. Track your spending
4. Find an accountability partner.
5. Consider ways to increase your income.
6. Improve your credit score (You should first find out what it is!  The good news is that you can now get a free credit score without credit card expense.  Here’s how.)

Unless you have completed Step 1, why waste any time or energy worrying about being in debt or anything else?  Put all your energy into competing Step 1. Let’s say you can’t complete Step 1 today.  OK.  No problem. What can you do today to advance towards your goal of creating a reasonable budget? Can you gather your spending records today? Can you get old credit card statements today?

I’m suggesting that you identify your intended goal and make a resolution to do something meaningful each day that will help you achieve that goal. That’s the resolution to stick to – not some goal that may seem a thousand miles away from you. I want to lose 15 pounds.  I’ve written about that before.

If I make that weight loss my resolution, it can be intimidating.  Every time I step on the scale I’m going to want to give up because the goal is so far away. But if I focus on what I have to do today in order to advance towards my goal, it’s more likely that I will stay on track.  I will stick to my food plan and exercise.

If I can do that, one day at a time, I am in fact sticking to my resolution – and ultimately, I’ll get to my goal. What are your goals for 2010?  What resolutions are you going to make that you can achieve on a daily basis?

One resolution you shouldn’t ignore is to check out these festivals: Carnival of Debt Reduction and Best of Money. A little late, but better than never…