6 Ways to Jump Start Your New Year's Resolutions

New Year. New me.

We hear it all the time. Year after year. Time and time again.

Lose weight. Go to the gym more. Eat healthier. The goals may differ person to person but the outcome consistently stays the same.

Related: New Year, New You - A Better Body Blueprint

Millions of people set New Year's goals but only 8% of them actually accomplish their goals. Short-sightedness, lack of mental focus, and zero dedication cause many to be limited in reaching their goals.

Why is this the case?

New Year's resolutions fail because we are limiting ourselves to goal setting for a specific time period. This implies that these goals are temporary while they should be long term and sustainable. Don't wait for the New Year to begin making positive life changes. Start your resolutions now and get a jump start on those New Year's goals right now instead of waiting for the calendar to strike January 1st.

Get a Jump Start on Your New Year's Resolutions

1. Create a plan of action

The reason why most goals are never accomplished is due to the fact that a specific plan or course of action is not taken. Set specific, measurable, achievable goals in order to reach your results.

Drop 10 pounds in 3 months. Go to the gym 4 times per week. Eat out twice a week or less.

The important point is to create a plan with easily defined results. Setting open-ended goals such as "eat healthier," or "be happier," are not measurable and are far less likely to be achieved.

2. Write down your goals

Having your goals in front of you in a place where they may be seen everyday forces you to be accountable as you see them written clearly in front of you every single day. Doing this ensures that you will not forget your goals as they will be staring you right in the face.

3. Be realistic

Always aim to achieve goals that are clearly accomplishable. If you are in a minimum wage job setting the goal of becoming a millionaire by year end might not be the best course of action.

Some good examples would be dropping your bodyfat by 5 or eating 3+ servings of vegetables per day.

4. Think long term

People tend to be extremely short-sighted when it comes to New Year's resolutions. This is the reason why gyms are so insanely crowded at the beginning of the year but by February they become a ghost town.

A successful person in any endeavor of life achieves their goals only through maintaining positive habits over a prolonged period of time. You can't build the body of your dreams with only two weeks in the gym.

5. Track your progress

The best way to reach your goals is to continually track your progress. By setting milestones you will ensure you are accomplishing several smaller tasks that will lead to reaching the overall goal.

If you are aiming to lose 15 pounds in 3 months but have only lost half a pound the first month, you may need to reevaluate your course of action. Monitoring your progress will achieve far greater results than haphazardly setting goals with no markers of accomplishment in between.

6. Be consistent

Developing positive and consistent habits will go a long way towards reaching your goals. The main reason why people tend to fall short in their goals is the fact that they do not practice positive habits consistently over a prolonged period of time.

Going to the gym once this week, once the next week, and so on will not result in substantial results. Remember as Aristotle once said, "We are what we repeatedly do. Therefore, excellence is not an act but a habit."

Ryan Rodal stresses that you should not make new year's resolutions but rather life resolutions.

Don't wait for the New Year to start to begin accomplishing your goals. Get a jump start on all those January gym-goers and focus on right now. The first of the year is simply a day just like any other so why treat it as some special novelty? The journey towards self-improvement and a better life should never wait.

There is no better day than today and no better time than right now.

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