Words from Christine…

We’ve been talking about five ways to make New Year’s resolutions stick:

1. Be convinced it will make your life better.
2. Break it into very small goals, and clearly state each goal.
3. Be accountable to yourself and at least one other person.
4. Be your own cheerleader, and have at least one other cheerleader.
5. Be able to adjust your expectations when necessary.

In our previous post, we covered the first point. In this post, I’d like to talk about the second point:

*Break it into very small goals, and clearly state each goal.*

When you make small goals, it takes the overwhelm out of resolution-keeping.

For example, if your resolution was to “start actively dating”, with the hope of “meeting someone to do things with” – you could start making small goals by asking yourself a series of questions. For example:

(1) What would you like to do with this someone?

• Go to the movies?
• Have good conversations over dinner?
• Play cards and board games?
• Go walking?

(2) What qualities would you like this someone to have? For example:

• Enjoy the same movies I do – musicals, action, happy endings.
• They ask me questions and listen to my answers. They know about things I don’t know, and are interested in learning about the things I know.
• Learn new games.
• Power walking vs. strolling through parks.

(3) How can you find places to meet people who share your activities? For example:

• Meetup.com. This is a wonderful source of activities. Just join and start marking the things you enjoy within your zip code and voila you will have a list of more things than you could ever do.
• Google to search for activities in your area.
• Ask friends and people at work.
• Look through the calendar of events at your place of worship.

Armed with the answers from a list like this, you’re now equipped to pick an activity to try.