Stick with those resolutions

Afew weeks into the new year and your resolutions are in tatters. You’re still eating two donuts for breakfast, have yet to email your ‘idea of the week’ to your boss and still haven’t called your mother. So now what?

Unfortunately, all the resolve in the world won’t help you hit your goals. Instead, you should look for new ways to keep yourself motivated and focused.

Tim Bono, an assistant dean in psychological and brain sciences at Washington University in St. Louis, offers the following four tips to help you keep your resolutions:

1. Identify an important reason:

Why are you resolving to change something in your life? Are you doing it for your kids or to improve your overall health? Research shows that reminding yourself of how your daily behaviors fit into big-picture goals will keep you motivated to stay on track.

2. Think about potential barriers:

Identify those things that might get in the way of implementing your goals. You might get lazy, tired, forget or be lured away by another temptation. Then, identify contingency plans for how you will respond in those moments: “When I reach for the chocolate cake, I will go into another room” or “I’ll have an apple instead.”

3. Set times for your new behavior:

When you make a schedule for new behaviors you’d like to incorporate into your life, they require less psychological strength to implement. When you get in the habit of running every Tuesday and Thursday morning, the behavior becomes much easier to initiate because it simply becomes part of your routine, like brushing your teeth or taking the dog on a walk. 4. Make goals measurable:

Break up your goals into smaller sub-goals and then reward yourself each time you hit a particular milestone that corresponds with progress toward your goal. If your goal is to lose 50 pounds in the new year, treat yourself to a movie or other fun outing for each five pounds you lose.