7 ways to keep your New Year's resolutions
Allow mistakes:
Almost everyone has done it. You're on a diet, but you just can't resist having a piece of your friend's birthday cake. Ah, you say, the diet is blown. Might as well have another piece of cake; some of those candy-coated cashews and the puff-pastry appetizer, right?
The better approach is to recognize that no one is perfect. You might occasionally backslide. But two steps forward and one step back is still one step forward. Don't stop going forward just because you slipped up. Consider, instead, a healthy response that lets you compensate -- have an extra glass of water instead of a glass of wine; take the dog on a long walk; scrub the floor (seriously, it's good exercise). Giving in once and a while shouldn't equate to giving up.
Some 62% of those who reached their goals said allowing for the occasional mistake played a key role in their ultimate success.
7. Reward yourself
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http://hankblank.wordpress.com/2011/12/31/2012-new-years-resolutions-everyone-can-keep/
Take care.
Hank Blank
www.hankblank.com
A clinical psychologist, author and inventor who focuses on helping people follow through on their own good intentions, I'm convinced that accepting the mind's faulty wiring is a key to doing a better job of following through. We accomplish nothing, for example, by persisting in expecting the good reasons that motivate to us to decide to make a certain change to also motivate us to actually make the change. As logical an assumption as that may be, the mind just doesn't work that way.
I'm working on developing a free online educational tool that's designed to help users work around the mind's faulty wiring and position any chosen good intention for success. Although it's a work in progress that I'm planning to improve and expand, it's now available to try at http://myplan.followingthrough.org.