How to make New Year Resolutions work - Master Coach Barbara Hofmeister

Following is an article from my friend Richard Tan, CEO of Success Resources which echos my sentiments about New Year Resolutions and reaching your goals and dreams:

On the 1st day of  the year, I received the following emails about starting the New Year right. As usual, these were some of the tips offered:

1. Drink less alcohol
2. Eat healthier food
3. Lose weight
4. Get fit
5. Take a trip
6. Volunteer to help others
7. Save more money

There were all kinds of advice that arrived in my inbox covering nearly every topic you can think of. There’s even one that tells you how to backup your hard drive!

The truth is, New Year resolutions tend to get a bad rap for being fruitless. Just ask any of your friends, and they’ll probably tell you that hardly any one of them has fulfilled his or her resolution. It seems like they never stepped out of their old selves, living with stale, self-limiting habits that are stopping them from getting the success they deserve.

Their advice?

Forget about New Year resolutions!

I disagree!

My thought is that since you’re going to break your resolutions like everyone else, just TAKE ACTION anyway! You see, the act of trying HAS value. Even if lasts only a month, a week, an hour…Or even if you’ve only accomplished 10% of your resolutions, at least you made an attempt. It’s better than sitting helplessly on your beanbag chair, giving in to others who want YOU to fail.

Before you start rummaging through your archive of long-forgotten resolutions, remember this: the goals aren’t as important as the process.

As the great poet Ralph Waldo Emerson so wisely puts it: “Life is a journey, not a destination”. It is never too late to start anew to be what you could have been. Life is not just about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself, every day. So get into the habit of persisting with your commitment to change and take action to get your goals. Even if it’s only a small change, you are still taking that all important step closer towards becoming the bigger, better person you are meant to be.

And if your target is nothing, that’s precisely what you’ll get!

So take action now!

Richard Tan, CEO

Success Resources, Singapore