Top New Years Resolutions for 2009
Once again, it’s time to think about your New Years Resolutions, assuming you haven’t given up on these long ago! Perhaps you’re one of those who prefer to say “my only resolution is NOT to make any resolutions”, knowing you never keep them? After all, what’s so special about a New Year?
Yes, the New Year is just a calendar date, but it’s a symbolic point you can leverage to let go of what you don’t want, and create what you do want. The secret is to not create unrealistic resolutions doomed to fail from the start, perhaps being too ambitious, not specific enough, or not really all that motivated about it.
So let’s talk about motivation… if you’re not motivated to change, then stop right here, why make a resolution only to later prove to yourself you can’t follow through? You have to start with self reflection, consider deeply where you want to be in life, and decide if you want it badly enough to take specific actions. If the answer is yes, make a mental commitment and then assess some very specific steps that will move you towards it. Those specific, achievable steps can be your New Years resolution. That’s fine if your resolution is only to take the first 2 steps in a 5 step process, that’s better than over committing yourself, and once you get started it will be so much easier to keep up the progress.
Beware setting broad, general resolutions like “spend more time with my son”, or “get in shape”, or “get a better job”. Rather, be specific, like “I’ll spend Sunday afternoon with my son”, or “I’ll take a long walk every morning”, or “I’ll apply for 5 new jobs each week”.
Be sure to consider all aspects of your life in choosing resolutions, it’s easy to get overly focused on an area of life you already do well at. Areas to consider include health, career, family, friends, specific skill sets such as improving your writing or speaking skills, or even more mundane tasks such as a project around the house.
Resolutions tie into Goal setting, so software or ebooks regarding goal setting may be helpful. Here’s a few options:
My Life Planner
Goalpro
Achieve-IT
Design Your Best Year Ever
Our website has some additional articiles on this topic here:
http://www.personal-development.com/chuck/nyresolutions.htm
http://www.personal-development.com/chuck/newyearsresolutions2.htm
http://www.personal-development.com/chuck/newyearsresolutions3.htm
As always, comments are welcome below to share your ideas and thoughts. Do you set resolutions? How about really commit, and share them with the world as a comment?
My new year’s resolution for 2009 is to have a website with as high an Alexa ranking as yours! ;-)
So many people start of with a resolution, but how many people actually follow through with it?
Not making a resolution when you definitely are not ready to make a commitment is great advice! Why make a New Year’s resolution just to feel bad afterwards.
But if you DO WANT to make a resolution there are two things that greatly increase the chances of sticking to it. First, make your promise public. The more friends know that you want to lose weight or quit smoking the less likely you are to be offered that huge slice of cake or a cigarette. And peer pressure will work to your advantage.
And secondly – have a financial incentive. For example pledge to give money to charity if you can’t fulfill your resolution.
When me and a few friends realized how important these things are we even developed a web application for that – http://www.pledgehammer.com . Would be great to hear if this works for people.
I recommend everyone set aside some time in 2009 to bridge the gap between broken relationships and focus on your loved ones. You can document life advice you’d like to pass on to your child, create advance password protected messages to “say” the things you wish you would have said or could say once you are no longer here. You can organize your assets, document final wishes, and much more. It’s so easy and will bring such a good feeling to you today and to loved ones later on.
Do it for your family! People buy life insurance to provide some level of financial comfort… subscribe to My Eternal Journal to provide emotional comfort to those left behind.
I read in an article that instead of ‘resolutions’ they should be called ‘New Year Solutions’ – I love that! Our life ROCKS right now so my solutions for this year include:
*continuing to be the primary influence in our children’s lives (ie. no daycare)therefore spending as much time them as possible
*continuing our success & prosperity within our thriving business
*give 10% of our wealth to our church
*whenever & where ever we travel, we will spend a day donating our time & energy to make that country, state/province or city a more loving place. So far this year, we plan on helping Acapulco, Mexico, St. Martin & Hawaii.
Thank you so much for your website…it’s an incredible resource to me & our family.
Cheers to Abundance & Prosperity in 2009!
Nancy Jamison
http://LiveInProsperity.net