Achieve Your Goals

Research suggests several ways to increase your success rate.

1. Do it for "intrinsic" reasons. People are more likely to follow through and complete a goal when it is intrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation is when a behavior or attitude is percieved as freely chosen and inherantly valued.  This is called  "do it for yourself."

2. Make achievable goals.  Setting a goal that is too difficult leads to frustration and a sense of failure, which often result in goal abandonment.

3. Make small interim goals. For instance, if your goal is to lose 50 pounds and you sign up and start weight watcher classes.  Your target weight is months away. This can make it very difficult to follow through, because it is hard to keep motivated without intermediate rewards.  Set up mini goals along the way, like a healthy two pounds lost per week, and celebrate when you meet those goals.

4.Stay the Course. Many people  have a minor slip up, and then simply give up.  To be successful you need to be persistent.

5. Keep in mind that we are poor at predicting our future moods. There are times we won't be as motivated to complete our resolutions as we were when we made them. Losing motivation is a normal reaction so preparing for it can help you push on and complete your resolution.