10 tips to make your New Year’s resolution a success

Professor Richard Wiseman, of the University of Hertfordshire tracked 5,000 people as they attempted to achieve their New Year’s resolutions and has these top 10 tips to achieving your New Year’s resolution:

1. Make only one resolution. Your chances of success are greater when you channel energy into changing just one aspect of your behaviour.
2. Don’t wait until New Year’s Eve to think about your resolution and instead take some time out a few days before and reflect upon what you really want to achieve.
3. Avoid previous resolutions. Deciding to revisit a past resolution sets you up for frustration and disappointment.
4. Don’t run with the crowd and go with the usual resolutions. Instead think about what you really want out of life.
5. Break your goal into a series of steps, focusing on creating sub-goals that are concrete, measurable and time-based.
6. Tell your friends and family about your goals. You’re more likely to get support and want to avoid failure.
7. Regularly remind yourself of the benefits associated with achieving your goals by creating a checklist of how life would be better once you obtain your aim.
8. Give yourself a small reward whenever you achieve a sub-goal, thus maintaining motivation and a sense of progress.
9. Make your plans and progress concrete by keeping a handwritten journal, completing a computer spreadsheet or covering a notice board with graphs or pictures.
10. Expect to revert to your old habits from time to time. Treat any failure as a temporary setback rather than a reason to give up altogether.

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