You probably already know that over 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the end of January, and 95% fail by the end of February. If you haven’t heard these stats before, this might be shocking to you…but how many of you know these statistics prove more true in your life than you would like to admit?

Whether it’s the promises you fail to keep to yourself or your children, you always seem to struggle with following through. Why is that? Why is it that certain people always seem to follow through on their goals or promises they make to themselves or loved ones? That is what I want to discuss today in this article.

• Step 1: Write your goals down

  • It’s fascinating how this little tip makes all the difference. If you were to look into the top 5% of people who reach their goals every year you would find that almost all of them have clear goals written out on paper or some type of document.
  
  
  • When you write these goals, make sure you are detailed and clear. You also want to know how you know when you complete it…meaning, it needs to be measurable! Many people, when writing goals, tend to write them down as ideas or wishes (like “oh, that would be nice…”) and they don’t know how they will accomplish it. Therefore, at the end of the year if they saw some sort of progress they would write it off as a win instead of understanding that they are way off the mark! In summary, be clear and make it measurable.
  
  

  Step 2: Create action steps for each goal

  • This is a step a lot of people tend to forget, and can cause many headaches when trying to achieve a goal. Think about it, how nice would it be if you had a plan of at least 5 steps you could take TODAY that could help you reach your goal or start moving in the right direction! You see, many times what will do is only work on achieving those goals when we find time or when it’s convenient. The problem is, success in anything is never convenient…you have to be intentional if you want success.
  
  
  • Another thing I have found to be beneficial is writing down the skills you may need to develop. What this does is allows you to pinpoint certain areas of your life that you need to work on and develop if you want to reach your goals. Then from there, you can create an action plan to develop those skill which will in-turn help you reach your goals.
  
  

  Step 3: Commit

• You need to make a commitment to yourself and others (yes, tell others and make them keep you accountable) that you will stick to your plan all year, no matter what!