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So the New Year is now here.

You might well be down hearted if you took notice of all the news in the last couple of days about the fact that unless we had established our New Year resolutions way before 1 January, then we are bound to fail in achieving them – in fact statistically we become one of the 80%. The 80% of people who fail to keep to their resolutions by the end of January.

Is it any wonder that most of us no longer bother with New Year resolutions?!

If you have caught any Christmas TV over the last couple of weeks, you might have noticed an advert for Boots the Chemist who are encouraging people to change just one thing.

Time and again we become overwhelmed if we have too many things to tackle – just think how depressing a long to-do list is that carries on week after week with no real traction – in fact very often the list gets longer not shorter.

In a recent article I wrote about the importance of focus to becoming world class. The same approach is equally relevant when setting and keeping New Year Resolutions.

Here are three actions you can take to support you on staying on track with your NEw Year Resolutions:

1. ALIGN AGAINST ONE GOAL - yes just one thing that you want to accomplish this year. You can make the decision based on something that you would like to further enhance in your life, something that if you achieved it would make a positive difference to your perspective on life. And make sure that this is something that you WANT – we rarely respond in a positive way if we choose to work on something we think we need to do or take action upon
2. BREAK DOWN YOUR GOAL – rather than looking at the goal as one almighty daunting task, break it down into smaller milestones – ideally ones that you can track over 30 days. You can then map out your progress you make in shorter increments and consider rewarding yourself in some way when you reach these milestones
3. CREATE A COMMUNITY FOR SUPPORT - research continues to show that we are more likely to be successful if we share our goals with others. So consider who you could you work with as an accountability partner to help keep you on track? Could you create your own mastermind group; or perhaps you could work with a coach or mentor to help keep you on track; or do you have a group of friends that you can connect with regularly for support, encouragement and accountability?

If you have decided to establish New Year Resolutions I hope these tips help.

And if you are wondering about my New Year Resolutions – well I never set any. You see some time ago I realised that the key reasons that I failed to follow through with New Year Resolutions was that I was putting off change to the begining of the year. If during the course of the year that there is something I want to achieve, I build it into my plan there and then, not putting it off for a later date. I do however apply the ABC’s as detailed above and they have certainly helped me to accomplish some huge goals over the years.

If you have ideas that have worked for you in helping you achieve your goals and New Year Resolutions, perhaps you can share them here with our Biz Growth Community.

And whether you believe in setting New Year Resolutions or not, I hope that 2008 will be happy, healthy and successful for you!