By Brenda Sillas, BS, MBA, CHES
Have you tried making a New Year’s resolution in the past only to find that a few weeks into the new year you’ve given up?
If this sounds like you, please keep reading.
First, know that it’s not entirely your fault that you didn’t achieve your resolution last year.
The problem with New Year’s resolution commitments is that no one asks you about your plan to achieve the resolution. Therefore, today, I’m going to share with you how to make a New Year’s Resolution action plan so that you can show up to the New Year’s Eve party at the end of the year bragging about how you achieved your resolution! Woohoo!
These strategies are the exact same strategies I use with my private coaching clients and also the strategies that I use for myself.
Get the blueprint to lose 20 pounds by summer here
Here are the 5 steps to develop a powerful and foolproof action plan to achieve your New Year’s Resolution.
- Decide on the one thing you’d like to change or achieve in the new year
You may need to set aside some time to think about this and do some journaling so that you can narrow it down to just one thing. The last thing you want is to come up with multiple resolutions because then that gets overwhelming and you’ll end up not achieving any of them.
For example, if you really want to lose weight, get out of debt, get a promotion, get toned, eat healthily, and have energy then pick one of those things only.
According to Daniel Pink, a great way to help you decide which one to pick is to look back on the previous year as New Year’s resolutions begin with old year’s regrets. If you were to look back at last year, what do you regret not working towards or achieving the most? The answer to this question is your ONE thing aka your New Year’s resolution.
- List all of the actions and behaviors that will help you achieve your resolution.
This is where the magic happens. For example, if your resolution is to lose weight, you know that you’ll most likely need to change your eating habits, workout consistently, take vitamins, get adequate sleep, limit alcohol consumption and drink more water.
- Create your 30-day tracker
Once you’ve listed all of the actions and behaviors create a tracker for yourself for the current month where you can list the actions/ behaviors on the left and the number of days on the right like the image below.
- Start tracking your progress
Put an “x,” a checkmark, or a star each day you complete one of the behaviors or actions and keep going. Don’t give up if you miss one day or even two. Always pick up where you left off and try to stay optimistic and positive about your progress.
- Evaluate your month 1 progress and modify as you go
Since you’re giving yourself one year to achieve your resolution then it’s extremely important to pace yourself and to modify as you go. After your one month evaluation you’ll want to consider asking yourself these questions:
- What was challenging about completing the behaviors and actions on a daily basis?
- Do you need help with any of the behaviors and actions?
- If any of the behaviors and actions were too easy, how can you continue to challenge yourself so that you can achieve your resolution faster?
- Is this still something that you want to continue working on?
- What are the behaviors and actions that you will continue next month?
- What are the new (if any) behaviors and actions that you will focus on next month?
If your resolution this year is to lose weight, get fit, healthy, and focused and you’re tired of trying to figure it all out on your own, I’d love to partner with you and help you out. Coaching is not for everyone and if you feel like you’d be a great candidate for coaching then please consider filling out this form so we can have a conversation and discuss your options. I have long-term coaching (3, 6, and 10 months) options available as well as quick 90-minute strategy sessions and 20-minute sessions.
Over to you!
There you have it. Now you have a solid idea for how to create a foolproof action plan to help you achieve your new year resolution with confidence.
Connect with me via email by subscribing to my newsletter. As my gift to you, you’ll receive my complimentary blueprint to lose 20 pounds by summer.
Happy New Year!
Brenda
