Strategize Your New Year's Resolution

Photo credit: kansas_city_royalty (Flickr)

If you're at all a football fan, you may know that we're heading into playoff season.  I won't tell you who I'm rooting for, but their name {might} start with the letter C.  As these teams are heading into the playoffs, we know their goal is to end up winning the ultimate showdown, the Super Bowl, right?  But is that goal enough to really get them there?  No way!  Not only do they have to have a goal (i.e., win the Super Bowl), they've also got to have a strategy or two or fifty that will help them accomplish that goal.

If you made resolutions this year, then hopefully you made SMART ones because those will definitely offer you a strong place to start.  Let's imagine that one of your SMART resolutions is to eat three cups of vegetables each day.  Great. Now what?  Just as the football teams will develop strategies for each game and even for each moment in the game, you need to create your own strategies in order to more effectively accomplish your goals.  While I'd like to say that just because you set your intention on eating three cups of vegetables each day that it will happen, this goal will not be realized without some strategizing.  Think of it as your blueprint to success as it will take a lot of the guess work out of your efforts.

So how do you strategize?  Ask questions.  When will you eat those three cups of vegetables? Will it be 2 cups at lunch and 1 cup at dinner? Maybe it'll be 1 cup at lunch, 1/2 cup at two snacks, and 1 cup at dinner.  What do you need to do to make sure you have three cups of vegetables available to you every day?  Will some of these vegetables be eaten during the work day? If so, what do you need to do to ensure that you have them at work?  The more that you dig into the details, the stronger your plan will be and the more successful you will be at achieving your goals.  

At this point, you might be saying to yourself, "That sounds like a lot of work."  Well, I won't lie. It will take work at first.  That's to be expected with any new behavior.  However, it will definitely get easier with practice.  And guess what? You and your health and well-being are worth it.

Do you need more support in getting off to a strong start this year?  Check out these other posts for more inspiration.

• SMART resolutions      
• How to keep your new year's resolution
• What we want most
• Failing to plan