Making & Keeping Your New Year’s Resolutions in 2011

First off, Happy Holidays! I hope your Christmas, or whatever you celebrate, was fantastic.

Raise your glasses for the New Year!

I don’t think I actually had a New Year’s resolution for 2010, but I did reach quite a few of my goals that I’ve set for myself over this past year, both personal and professional. One of the best feelings for me is the sense of accomplishment when I check something off of my list, no matter how big or small that item is (I’m a HUGE list person, by the way.) I wanted to share with you some of my own methods for making and attaining goals. Whether you’re trying to snag a big client, take a trip, or lose some weight, I hope this information will help you get there a little quicker. Please feel free to add to this list!

Be Realistic

I had to start with this one. I mean damn, if your goal in 2011 is to be the President of the United States, I hate to break it to you but I’m pretty sure we’ve got that position covered ’til 2012. Be realistic! Don’t set yourself up for disappointment by creating unattainable goals.

Write Out a List

Write out each of your goals on a piece of paper. Don’t save it on your smart phone, don’t put it in an e-mail. Write it out. There’s something about physically touching a pen to paper that makes it that much more real. Then you can hang up that piece of paper in an area where you constantly look, as a constant reminder of what you want to achieve. If you want to really dive deep and be visual about it since I know a lot of you reading this are creative, you can create a Visualization Board that can serve as its own little art piece.

Turn Your Resolutions Into Actual Goals

I think a problem that a lot of people have with keeping New Year’s resolutions is that they tend to be very vague, which makes them hard to keep. Turn your resolutions into To-Do List items, and if possible, attach a due date for when these goals should be completed by. For example, if your resolution is to “Cook More Often”, that could easily be broken within the first month because it’s not made clear just how often you should be cooking. Instead you could rewrite it as “Cook At Least Three Times a Week”. If you want to go even further, set your cooking days to the same three days per week, so that you can plan ahead and make time to go to the grocery store. If your goal is to “Exercise More”, you could probably change it to something more direct, such as “Lose 5 lbs”. Once your goals are much more clear, the paths to attain them become a lot clearer as well.

Make Use of Technology

I use my Google Calendars to help keep me on top of what I need to get done (my amazing intern also texts me every other morning to remind me about what shows up on my calendar). Let’s go back to the last paragraph. If you want to cook three times a week, create a ‘Cooking’ event and set it up to repeat three times a week, every week. If you are constantly seeing this event on your calendar, ideally you will begin cooking more often because of the consistent reminders.

Write Out the First Action Steps

When creating your goals list, for each item, write down the first step you plan to take to get moving in the right direction. Some goals may seem too big and intimidating, and when you’re unsure of which steps to take first, the goal may end up on the back burner and you probably will never get back around to it. If your goal is to take a trip abroad, your first step could be to check out your calendar and figure out some good dates to travel.

Get Better Friends

Got this one off of a Time.com article. “Consciously and subconsciously, people tend to imitate those around them. So surround yourself with friends who can also be role models. Make sure that people you hang out with are people who look and act the way you would like to. Social imitation is the easiest form not only of flattery but of self-improvement.” I agree with this one whole-heartedly. When the people you surround yourself with are kind, positive, and driven, it motivates you to be the same way.

With that said, I share with you my New Year’s Goals List for 2011 (I will probably add to this later!)

-Lose 8 lbs and maintain a healthy lifestyle
First step: Start off with the Master Cleanse

-Book an international show
First step: Get in touch with some of my international contacts

-Travel to Europe
First step: Set travel dates

-Illustrate for a major publication
First step: Redesign my marketing materials

What are some of the goals that you hope to achieve in the New Year?