As the New Year approaches, many people feel the need to hit the reset button on their life. Maybe it’s the fact that school begins a new semester, or perhaps it’s the perception of leaving old habits and issues behind and starting fresh. One thing’s for sure, a new year brings change and possibly a new you. I’m not writing this article about popular New Year’s resolutions. I’m also not writing this to promote resolutions. In fact, I believe that New Year’s Resolutions simply don’t work.  In this article I suggest an alternative to a resolution.

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Why?

People make resolutions with the intention of making their lives better by removing temptation, or changing something. Popular resolutions like, “Eat healthy, quit smoking, loose weight, save money” are excellent ideas in thought, but in reality those goals have very low success rates. The reason people fail at maintaining resolutions is the fact that their resolutions are never set up to be permanent changes in the first place.

Id like to use dieting as an example. When someone says “I’m going on a diet” what does that statement really mean? Well, first off, “going” is a term used to explain a temporary action, such as “going on a cruise” or “going for a walk.”  Neither phrase implies that the trip is indefinite (even though an indefinite cruise sounds pretty awesome). The problem here is that we set ourselves up for failure from the very beginning.

Instead of making a New Year’s resolution this year, make a life-long change. If you follow these 4 steps you will be able to make a change in your life without feeling the guilt involved with giving up a New Year’s resolution.

Clear Your Mind

If you truly want to change something in your life, you must first rid your thoughts of failure.
This is the first step towards change. Many people believe:

• “Nothing good ever happens to me”
• “It’s too hard to change”
• “I’m comfortable with my current situation”

If you have any of these thoughts, first take a step back and think about what you truly want without giving-in to negative thoughts. If you can’t prepare yourself mentally then you will never have the confidence to maintain your changes when the going gets tough.

To do this, think about how important this change is to you. Make a conscious promise with yourself that no matter how hard this change might be, you will never give up. Making this promise will give you confidence and promote positive thoughts.

Let’s say I wanted to change my diet and eat healthy. For this step I would make a promise to stick with my diet plan no matter how hard. To do this, I would need to incorporate manageable limits such as allowing cheat days and meals on special occasions.

Set Clear and Manageable Goals

It is much easier to keep yourself motivated when you have a clear set of manageable rules and goals. Make sure you choose something that is within your control and does not cause unnecessary stress.

For example, to lose weight I might set my goals as:

• Drink water instead of soda during meals.
• Drink alcohol only on the weekends.
• No more snacks after 8pm.

By following these three simple goals I will eliminate almost 1000 calories per day from my diet. If you are having trouble setting goals, start simple. Sometimes it’s easier to conquer a small goal and then move on to more difficult ones.

Don’t Do It Alone

One of the best ways to motivate yourself is to set goals with a friend or relative. Having someone by your side will help you stay focused and ignore temptations. Your partner will support you while you support them.

A great way to start is to find someone who is on your same path. For example, your roommate or a coworker might mention “I need to lose some weight.”  As a team, you could write out your goals and help each other along the way.

Never Give Up, Never Surrender

This is the most important part of your journey. Even if you have a slip-up or loose sight of your goals push yourself to get back on track.

As a sophomore in college, I decided to drop out of school. Not because I gave up, but because I knew I would come back. I needed some real world experience to motivate me to continue my degree. Sure enough, after a year of working in the real world without a college degree, I resumed my education and am now on track to graduate in May of 2010. I was making good money without a degree but I had made a promise to myself and I was determined to finish school.

If you take anything away from this article I hope you would at least rethink your “New Year’s resolution” and instead, consider making a life change. Remember, New Year’s resolutions are temporary, life changes are forever.

For help with weight loss, developing a healthy eating plan, or making healthy choices, check out HealthyCompass.com

About CampusByte

Jay Willingham has wrote 68 articles on this blog.

Jay is a new media writer, entrepreneur, and business development professional with an educational interest in technology and new-media. Find out more about Jay here.

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