Life Balanced

With January 1st quickly approaching, this is a good time to start thinking about what you want to accomplish next year. What do you want your life to look like in 2008? What can you do to create happiness and abundance next year? What are your New Year’s resolutions? Below I’ve include a ten step guide to help you set attainable New Year’s resolutions.

1. Redefine “resolution.” The word resolution is defined as finding a solution to a problem so most people tend to write down bad habits they want to eliminate, debt they want to pay off or weight they want to lose. The Law of Attraction says that by focusing on the negative or problem, that is what you will attract into your life. Instead, visualize the end result; the way you want your life to be moving forward. When you go through the exercise of writing down your New Year’s resolutions, make sure to focus on the positive.
2. Be specific. I look at New Year’s resolutions as goal setting, and with any goal setting exercise is important to be as specific as possible. One of best techniques for doing so is to set SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. An example of a SMART goal is, “I will achieve my ideal weight of XX pounds in six months by joining a gym and working out three days a week. Audrey at GoodImprovements.com does a great job SMART goals in more detail.
3. Shorten the time table. Not all resolutions should be given a year time frame. By doing so, the temptation to wait until the end of the year is greater. Instead, break down the year into quarters or months and decide what you’d like to accomplish throughout the year.
4. Break it down into manageable action items. Your resolution to earn an additional $25,000 in 2008 is admirable, but you also need to determine how you are going to accomplish such a goal. By breaking them down into smaller goals or action items, your chances of accomplishing your resolutions are much greater.
5. Write them down and revisit them regularly. If you don’t write out your resolutions the chances are you won’t even remember what they are let alone take the time to accomplish them. This is probably one of the single most important steps to setting New Year’s resolutions. Studies have shown (OK, I don’t have the source of the “studies” but I know it’s true!) that your chances of accomplishing a goal increases significantly if you write it down.
6. Say it in pictures. Since the book The Secret came out, vision boards have been increasing in popularity. A vision board is basically a poster board that has pasted on it drawings, pictures and cut outs from magazines that illustrate what you want your ideal life to look like. What about a vision board for the year? Christine Kane’s blog gives a great step-by-step on how to create a vision board.
7. Categorize your New Year’s resolutions. By breaking them out by category, your resolutions will be easier to digest, give you better insight into your areas of improvement and also ensure that you cover all major areas of your life. Some categories to consider are the following: Health & Fitness, Professional, Personal Relationships, Travel, Finance, Charity, Things You’d Like to Have.
8. Use last year’s resolutions as your guide. If you’ve written out New Year’s resolutions in the past, bring them out and review them. If you find that you keep writing down the same goals year after year, you should ask yourself why you haven’t been able to accomplish them. Is it dependent upon something outside your control? Can it be broken down into smaller resolutions? Over time your resolutions should change because you life changes and you will have hopefully achieved some of the things you wanted the previous years.
9. Stretch goals. It’s tempting to write down some resolutions that you know you will accomplish and are already planned for next year. An example of this is if your goal is to go on a ski trip to Utah in 2008 and you’ve already booked the flight. Or setting a goal of drinking eight glasses of water daily if you already drink nine. Push yourself into setting resolutions that are a challenge, but by accomplishing them you will create more happiness and balance in your life.
10. Put aside the time. Whether it is time by yourself or making it a group effort, it is important that you put aside dedicated time to create your New Year’s resolutions. There have been a number of years when I have gotten together with a couple close friends and a bottle of wine and we work on them together. If you opt to go this way, it is important that you stay focused on what is specifically important to you. Others believe that it is a very personal task that they prefer to write by themselves.

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