Tips and Tricks to Keep Your New Year's Resolutions

A New Year—a new you? Likely not, according to many of our own experiences. If you, like countless others, find your New Year’s Resolutions difficult to keep, consider these quick tips and tricks—backed by recent studies.

Prioritize
There’s nothing more daunting than a laundry list of items you want to achieve. Instead of making this the year to go to the gym five days a week, watch less television, quit smoking, learn Italian, volunteer in your community, and get your finances on track, pick the resolution that you want most and focus on it. This way, you’ll be more likely to stick to it, according to a recent study about saving money.

Plan ahead (and tell people!)
A recent study showed that simply asking people to predict when they will next engage in a healthy behaviour –such as working out—increased their chances of keeping the healthy behaviour. This is because the process of planning a new behaviour ahead of time helps to break our old habits. So plan out your week, write it on the calendar, and tell your friends and family all about it.

Visualize your goal
This one may be a bit different than you thought—rather than imagining yourself achieving your goal (another visualization technique), this strategy involves making your progress easy to see and track. Make a chart or graph, fill up a piggy bank, or create a countdown—these all make your progress easier to track, so you can be proud of yourself frequently.

Wishing everyone a happy and healthy 2012!