It’s that time of year when everything we see and hear is telling us that we should be setting New Year’s Resolutions and begin the new year with a revived energy for making the changes in our lives that we want and perhaps need to pursue. Perhaps the last year was filled with challenges, disappointments and a sense of failure. On the other hand, perhaps it was filled with successes and more happy moments than disappointing ones. Perhaps you experienced life changes:  New Job/Job Loss…New Marriage-Relationship/ Breakup/Divorce, Expanded Family/Loss of Loved Ones. The list can go on and on.

Making New Years Resolutions to change the things you disliked about the last year or to expand on the good things can be good and bad. Setting unrealistic expectations can set you up for another year of failure/loss/disappointment. The key to setting goals is to make them a challenge to reach vs setting them so high they’re unattainable and thus set you back emotionally and possibly physically. Ex: To go from no exercise to bench pressing 300 lbs in 6 weeks is both unrealistic and dangerous…physically and emotionally. Expecting to go from an entry level position to top management within a year, again, can defeat you emotionally which will also affect you physically. Determine to sell your home for top dollar in under a month can be possible in some markets but without the proper research, homework and exposure….this can set you back emotionally and financially.

New Years Resolutions need to stretch you to grow without destroying you due to unrealistic expectations. Determine the most important goals you have for the new year and focus on a few instead of creating a list of multiple resolutions causing you to not accomplish any due to overload. Set one or two realistic goals and then once you’ve achieved that goal…determine the next and then the next and so on. Want to pay down your debt so you can buy your dream home. Create a realistic budget and payoff plan and then work at it daily.

The most important factor leading to your success or failure is to take time at the end of each day to celebrate the successes and fix what didn’t work. Then plan for tomorrow. A key to success in goal setting is to never start your day until it’s finished. In other words, at the end of the day after celebrate/fix set up your goals and plans to accomplish tomorrow. This way you don’t waste time at the beginning of the day saying, “should I do this or should I do that?” You’ll already know exactly what you need to do and have a plan for success. Work through that day and then repeat the process.

Experiencing little success and celebrations along the way give us the energy to keep on keeping on to a Happy, Healthy, Successful New Year!