Strengthening Your New Years Resolutions

    As the old year fades into history, the new year offers an ocean of opportunity to make things better.  We all see the new year as a fresh start, a time to commit ourselves to being better in many aspects.  It is our time to promise ourselves to get on a path that will lead us to higher ground.  How many have found that those New Year resolutions, in the past,  were easier to commit to than to stick with during the course of the new year?  Let us look at ways to take the pain out of making New Years resolutions which we seldom keep.  This simple list of guidelines will surely help you to approach the making of New Years resolutions in a practical doable way: 

1. Make New Years resolutions which will be meaningful to your life.  Don’t worry about other’s enhancements as much as your own.  As you become better, they will be enriched.
2. Be realistic.  Make promises to yourself which are attainable.  Perhaps you may want to lose a few additional pounds.  Keep your parameters in a realistic light.  Also purchase any equipment you may need to help your goal to be realized. 
3. Secrecy– it is best that you make your New Years resolution a thing of privacy.  When you announce your intentions to everyone, there will always be someone there to throw dispersion or cold water on your intent.  So the more private and personal, the better. 
4. Include God in your aspirations.  He should be your First, Last, and Best Partner in helping you arrive at your goals.  Pray as you go throughout the year, knowing He can give you the success you need. 
5. Be prepared for difficulty and barriers.  Make plans to meet them head on should they occur.  A New Year resolution represents an unchartered course.  You will have times of despair, but do not be discouraged, just continue moving in a positive direction and go around your difficulties. 
6. Allocate adequate and reasonable amounts of time to make your New Year resolution come true.  In your busy schedule, carve out specific times for yourself to work on your New Year resolution.  Keep track, perhaps on a log, or in a notebook, how you are doing and evidences of your achievements. 
7. Allow your family members to help you.  In case you have told family members of your plans, give them a part in helping you to achieve your New Year resolve.  Making them a part of your plan will also help them to be more sensitive to your needs and feel that they are helping you to make a difference. 
8. Have islands of rewards— periodically reward yourself for your efforts by taking yourself out to lunch, taking a mini vacation, or buying yourself something new for your wardrobe.  In this way, you keep yourself motivated and happy. 
9. Love yourself through the year.  Don’t beat up on yourself for the times when you miss the mark.  It’s not so much the point of arriving, as how you are when you arrive.  Don’t be cruel or unreasonable to yourself.  Please do not put yourself under too much stress to achieve your goals. 
10. Chart your way to success.  You can divise a personal chart and color it in as you go on to a victorious end.  At the end of the year, hopefully you will have a chart that shows you have taken on the challenge and been a winner. 

    For you and many more, may your New Years resolutions this year be the best ever!  If you do real good at it, sit down and write a bestseller to inspire others.