Forget New Year Resolutions - They Don't Work

By Author: Sam Sander
Total Articles: 60
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It's nearly that time of year again for setting and forgetting your New Year resolutions. But in all honesty, New Year resolutions rarely work. So forget about making New Year Resolutions if you're hoping for a successful result, because most aren't worth the paper they're written on, that's if they're written down at all.

Mark Twain has written about New Year Resolutions. He notes, "Now is the accepted time to make your regular annual good resolutions. Next week you can begin paving hell with them as usual. Yesterday, everybody smoked his last cigar, took his last drink, and swore his last oath. Today, we are a pious and exemplary community. Thirty days from now, we shall have cast our reformation to the winds and gone to cutting our ancient shortcomings considerably shorter than ever."

The majority of New Year Resolutions have gone by the wayside before the second week of January, and most won't even be remembered six months later. Why? Well quite simply, it's because most resolutions are made in response to something unwanted, such as a bad habit or situation that you want to change. And this is the problem ...
... - it's hard to develop motivation and momentum from a negative feeling. It is always easier to move toward something positive, rather than away from something bad.

One of the most common resolutions is weight loss. But how can you get enthused about losing weight, because it requires deprivation of food that probably gives you great pleasure currently, and the discomfort of exercise. It's a negative response to a negative feeling about your self image and health.

Studies show that people who succeed at losing weight and maintaining weight loss have usually been motivated by a dream much bigger and more positive than just losing weight. They see themselves living a healthy lifestyle, or perhaps they see a positive physical achievement such as climbing a Mountain. And they begin to behave and think like people who are in good health. In this case, there is more of a far-reaching change in the person's thinking and behavior than you see with most resolutions. And it wouldn't be possible to make and maintain such a radical change unless the person is motivated by a big dream that is positive in nature.

So if you're going to make a New Year Resolution this year, make one with a high chance for success. Make a resolution to develop a life plan and set life goals. Most people are reactionary throughout life, going from one crisis to the next. They wake up one day and decades may have passed and they're no where near where they thought or wished they'd be. If you have a life plan you're much more likely to be excited by what the future brings.

A life plan should cover all aspects of your life including family, relationships, health, career, finance, spiritual and recreational or social. A lot of our concentration tends to be on financial matters such as making more money and creating wealth, or health issues such as weight loss. But the reality is that the things that make us the happiest are our relationships and our family. So it is vital to balance all the life aspects to achieve true happiness and success.

If you were going to build a new house and you a fantastic concept for a master chef inspired kitchen, you wouldn't rush out and start building the kitchen. You'd have a complete plan of the house, including the interconnections between all the rooms and with the right balance, before you started. You should approach goals in the same manner, to end up with a much better chance of achieving success.
You can find out more about how to achieve all your goals and desires by checking out these FREE goal setting tools and resources . You'll also find lots of free tips and templates on a range of self-help topics from success to emotional intelligence.