New Year, New Goals, New Resolutions

The tradition of making New Year’s resolutions dates back to the Babylonians. Babylonians, from historical records, are the first one to fest New Year and also are known to have set New Year resolutions. The most common of their resolutions was said to be “to return the borrowed farm equipment”. (See New Year’s Resolutions)

How SMART are you in making your New Year’s Resolution?
Making New Year’s resolutions is very easy, however those resolutions made without a clear plan in mind are prone to failure. If you plan on meeting the challenge of making a New Year’s resolution, you may as well ensure that you make SMART choices!

SMART, an acronym representing the different stages of setting the goals.
Specific. Be Specific. Declaring you want to lose weight is a very general statement with no real meaning. Saying you want to lose fifteen pounds is more specific.
Measurable. Make sure you’re able to Measure that the level of achievement of the goal. In this way track can be kept of your progress and motivation to move toward our final goal maintained.
Attainable. Set goals that that are Attainable for you.
Realistic. Your goal must also be Realistic, something you have any control over. (Something you can realistically expect to accomplish, even if you need to divide the final goal into smaller attainable steps.)
  Timely. You’re far more likely to succeed if there’s a time frame associated with the resolution. Be it a month, six months, or the whole year. Do take the time to set an end date; then work backwards and determine the deadlines of your smaller goals. Pacing yourself throughout the year is more beneficial and less stressful than giving up on it or saving all the work for the last month before your final deadline.

Whatever your specific goal is, write it down and stick it where you will be reminded everyday.
If you have a very large goal, such as getting out of debt, break that large goal into much smaller goals or steps.
Make a chart or keep a journal to track your successes and achievements.