Nine tips to achieve your New Year’s resolutions

While often set with the best of intentions, it’s not uncommon for New Year’s resolutions and the motivation to follow through to fall into the water after a few weeks or months into the new year. Busy personal lives and stressful workdays can eventually get in the way, with “just getting by” taking precedence over any attempt to achieve more than the status quo.

But according to members of Council for Young Entrepreneurs, your year doesn’t have to go like this. Below, they each offer their best trick for making New Year’s resolutions work, especially when they relate to business, and explain why it’s possible to achieve your goals with the right plan.

1. Find an accountability partner to motivate you

I think the best thing you can do is to make yourself accountable by getting an accountability partner or joining a mastermind group. You can do this by reaching out to another entrepreneur, colleague or business mentor that you trust and respect. Having someone else who knows what you’re working on and actively thinks along with you will keep you motivated throughout the year, which is essential to achieving your goals. – Blair Williams, MemberPress

2. Set short-term goals that will help you reach your long-term goal

Setting goals that take up a full 12 months can be unrealistic because the time frame is just too long. It takes considerable commitment and generally means it’s easy to quit. I suggest focusing instead on setting small manageable goals that are part of a bigger plan. Understand your long-term goal, then set smaller goals at regular intervals that will help you achieve your long-term goal. The small wins keep you motivated. – Dan Stevens, Protea Financial

3. Focus on one goal at a time

The trick to making a New Year’s resolution work is to focus on one thing. Many people build up a whole list of good intentions. That’s great and all, but it can be hard to focus on all of them at once. You will be more successful if you choose one goal to work on first and build from there. When you successfully reach a single goal or resolution, you feel more motivated to keep going and achieve more. – Syed Balky, WPB Beginner

4. Check your progress regularly

Setting SMART goals is a great trick for sticking to a New Year’s resolution for your business. It’s a popular technique, but one thing people often overlook is goal checking, especially for goals with a long timeline. If you set a goal in January with a 12-month timeline, there’s a risk of it being sidelined if you’re busy all year. Scheduling regular check-ins (at least monthly) ensures you can identify targets that are falling behind while there’s still time to get them back on track. – Diana Goodwin, MarketBox

5. Turn your target into your “frog”

When I have a goal, I make it my “frog” and commit to making sure I get it done as early in the day as possible. A metaphor from a Mark Twain quote, a “frog” is an urgent task or something you need to do, but you may not make it a focus. I recommend making any New Year’s resolution your frog and breaking it down into a series of achievable tasks and goals to accomplish as early in the day as possible. Also referred to as “Eat That Frog,” this time management system is described in Brian Tracy’s bestseller of the same name and is a way to get what you need to get the most done early on. Applied to a New Year’s resolution, this tactic has a time block for progress, which will yield repeated results. In other words, turn your resolution into a series of conquerable frogs, then eat one early every day. – David Henzel, TaskDrive

6. Keep a resolution journal for reflection and organization

Most people already understand the basics of making New Year’s resolutions work: make a specific plan, set attainable deadlines, and create accountability in some form. However, the trick to making resolutions work long term is to keep a resolution diary. Keeping a resolution journal allows you to write about your successes and struggles and, most importantly, allows you to write Why you are working towards your goal. It helps you keep track of the past, organize the present and plan for the future. You can buy resolution journals online or you can create your own journals with your own illustrations and motivational quotes. Whichever you choose, a journal will help you become one of the few people who can say they actually stuck to their New Year’s resolutions! – Shu Saito, All filters

7. Make sure your goal is of great value to you

I think the trick to making a New Year’s resolution work is to make sure it’s something super important or valuable to you. It is common for people to make resolutions (personal or professional) for the New Year when inspired by others. That may be good enough to keep you motivated for a few days or weeks, but not the entire trip. Achieving certain goals requires consistent effort and patience to reap the rewards. Therefore, your resolution should be important enough to be a self-starter. Unless you believe in your heart that something you’re striving for is of great value, it’s hard to stick to the plan and stay motivated throughout the grind. – Jared Achison, WPForms

8. Put antecedents and rewards in place

If you’re committing to a New Year’s resolution, make sure to put both the antecedents and rewards in place to make sure you stick to your new goal. For example, if your goal is to prepare for your day, create an antecedent like scheduling daily time in your calendar and then a reminder alarm to achieve your goal. As a reward, you may want to schedule a snack or coffee break after your prep session, which you don’t take until you’re done prepping. Sets the task to complete And gives you a reward when you’re done, creating a positive “habit-forming” behavior change. – Cooper Harris, clickable

9. Continue to make progress despite any failures or obstacles

I think the key to making any New Year’s resolution work, whether personal or professional, is to not give up on it. You need to strengthen your mind and keep the needle moving no matter what. Some of the goals you set for the coming year will be easy to achieve, others not so much. The trick to achieving all your goals is to keep moving forward despite countless failures and mishaps. It’s easy to get demotivated and just give up. But it takes iron will and unwavering determination to move forward despite all odds. After all, there’s a reason they call it a resolution. – Stephanie Wells, Formidable shapes