If You Want New Year Resolutions To Work

I do not make New Year resolutions. It is probably the worst time to make any resolutions at all. Like the smokers who say that they are going to quit smoking at midnight but there they are partying and dying for a smoke then finally giving in as they order another beverage.

My thought is you should begin any New Year resolution on the 15th of January. This way you have settled down from all the going ons during the festive season and back in work mode and normal life. Also you have two weeks to gear up for it.

To make any resolution work you have to replace the bad habit , or good habit you want to develop , and make some yardstick to measure it.

Let's say you want to quit smoking. This is an easy one. Take the money you would have spent smokes on and put it in a jar or bank account and watch your savings grow. Now a lot of people do that but quit doing it after a while. The reason is you have to be saving up for something. So let's say you want to buy a new TV quadrophonic sound system. If you have to put a picture of one by the jar then you will be reminded each time you are saving money what the reason is. Saving money alone will not stop you from smoking.

Once you buy the system you will see what the result was from quitting smoking. It is not just the money in the jar which will do it for you. After you do it once decide on what else you want. Do this over and over again till the bad habit is gone.

If you want to develop a good habit like spending some time with your kids set an achieveable goal at the beginning like for example 2 extra hours a week.Tell the kids. Make it easy as a lot of people make their goal unrealistic which only leads one to feel discontent and angry with themselves. Once you do those 2 hours a week and it becomes a good habit then you can build on it after. They say it takes about 7 weeks to make a good habit stick.

In any case the main thing is do your best. If you take a smoke one time a day it is better than 20. Just work on cutting it out. It is just a conscious decision you have to make.

That is all life is. A lot of people do not take any action which in itself is still a decision. A decision to do nothing.

So make 2010 a great year and may I take the opportunity to wish everyone out there a happy , healthy , prosperous New Year. And if you can pick only one I would say be happy. Because usually if you are happy you are healthy too.

Take care.