Yes, it’s that time of the year once again where many of us make “New Year’s Resolutions”, they are very easy to make but hard to keep.

Making a New Year’s Resolution is a great way to make positive changes in your life, whether it’s going to the gym, waking up much earlier, or making more money and finally quiting your pain-in-the-ass job!

The new year can be a motivation to change things around in your life.

However, research shows that 80% of New Year’s resolutions fail by the second week of February, remember – its much easier to make and harder to keep.

Here are 5 tips and guides to help you keep your goals and new year resolutionsin 2019:

#1. Decide Why You Want To Reach Your Goals.

Your WHY is going to always push you to go above and beyond.

Many of us write down or dream about achieving certain goals in life but we do not attach a reason to why we want to achieve these goals hence why it becomes very easy for us to give up or fail to fight till the end.

A goal for example might be to Make More Money in 2019, that’s an abstract goal. The question now is – Why do you want to make more money this year? Is it because you want to be able to have more freedom and time for yourself and loved ones? Is it because you want to be able to do more for people you love and support causes you care about or is it because you just want to make more money?

When you attach a “WHY” behind your goals, your “why” will always be there to remind you why that goal is important and why you have to give your all to achieve it and your “why” will be there to re-ignite the fire within you whenever you feel down and want to give up.

For example, one of my goals for this year is to set up systems in my business where I am making recurring residual income and have my money work for me, the why behind this is because I want to have more free time to do fun-projects, travel the world and also be able to be there for my siblings who need my financial support; currently, even though am self-employed and work from home – I spend a lot of time working, I like it but I know the richest people do not work crazy hours, their money does the working for them and they do more thinking, managing and over-seeing – that’s the goal for the year.

So, be sure to attach a “why” to your goal. Your “why” will help you stick to your goal till the end.

#2. Write Down Your Goals Where You Can See Them Daily.

Goals are not meant to be written and forgotten.

There is a need to constantly remind yourself of your goals, hence why it is important to write down your goals where you can see them daily, this will keep you accountable and also leave sub-concious notes in your brain to do things during the day that brings you closer to your goals.

If you want to achieve your goals, you NEED to write it down. People who write their goals down and vividly describe their goals are anywhere from 1.2 to 1.4 times more successful than people who don’t.

I never used to write down my goals, just like most people – I used to say “I have it in my brain”, so that’s all good BUT Neuroscience explains that writing things down happens on two levels: external storage and encoding.

External storage is bascially you storing information contained in your goal on a location, for example on a piece of paper. It doesn’t take a neuroscientist to know you will remember something much better if you’re staring at a visual cue (aka reminder) every single day.

Encoding is the biological process by which the things we perceive travel to our brain’s hippocampus (hippocampus is the part of the brain associated mainly with memory, in particular long-term memory) where they’re analyzed. From there, decisions are made about what gets stored in our long-term memory and, in turn, what gets discarded.

Writing things down improves that encoding process. In other words, when you write it down, it has a much greater chance of being remembered.

#3. Plan A Big Reward When You Achieve Your Goal and Several Small Rewards Along The Way.

We all love rewards! When people reward us for a job well done, we sub-conciously want to do more!

Now, let’s use that reward mentality to our advantage. When you achieve a goal you set for yourself, reward yourself with something. This will make you want to achieve more goals. However, not all rewards will make you want to do more of the behaivour that brought about the achievement of your goal.

Cassie White on Abc.net explained this so well, she said:

“For example, say your goal is to lose 20 kilograms, in large part by doing daily runs. When you achieve that, you treat yourself to a holiday. That’s a fantastic reward, but it doesn’t necessarily encourage more of the behaviour that got you to your goal.

However, if you’re someone who loves spending time on Instagram or Facebook, you might instead consider extra regular smaller rewards of say, allowing yourself to check social media once you’ve gone for a run each morning. This will more reliably produce a repeat of your desired behaviour – which is doing your daily runs.

So, even though you should reward yourself for achieving your goals, you should aim to reward yourself with things that kinda helps you do more of the behaivour that brought about the achievement of the goal.

By the way, this is just an advice – everyone has the right to choose the rewards they want for themselves. We are all unique, but I hope that mindset makes sense to you.

Setting a reward system for yourself is a powerful tool that greatly increases your chances of successfully reaching your goals.

#4. Find Someone To Keep You Accountable Daily.

In order to achieve your goals, you need hard work, time, preserverance and a strong commitment to achieve them.

The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD) did a study on accountability and found that you have a 65% chance of completing a goal if you commit to someone. And if you have a specific accountability appointment with a person you’ve committed to, you will increase your chance of success by up to 95%

With the world filled with loads of distraction, you can easily loose sight or give up on your goals but all this can become easier and more interesting when you leverage the “accountability system” – by this I mean; you having a clear set of goals and allowing others to help you achieve them.

As humans, we are more likely to achive goals when there is an incentive (a.k.a reward) or when we are accountable to someone or a group of people.

When you are accountable to someone or a group of people, you are more likely to achieve your goals because you egage the power of social expectations.

There has been so many times where I have said I will do soemthing but because there is no one to account to, I sometimes deviate from it and slip BUT when I tell people about it and I know they will check to see if it has been achieved, there is this thing inside of me that pushes me to doing anything within my power to achieve that goal.

Even when I do not do it, it keeps ringing in my head and I feel like I have dissapointed the people who I shared my goals with.

The expectation alone is enough motivation for you to commit and get things done!

So, find someone close to you or a group of people to share your goals with and tell them why it is important for you to achieve them and watch as you start working towards them with more passion and commitment.

Accountability accelerates your performance.

#5. Celebrate Your Success Daily That Helps You Get Closer To Your Goals.

When was the last time you took time out to celebrate your wins or accomplishments?

As hustlers and entrepreneurs, we are always so futuristic in the way we think – we set goals, achieve them and instantly move to another goal or set bigger ones. We most times do not take time out to celebrate our wins, whether big or small – this is the fastest way to burn out!

When you celebrate, edorphins are released to your body which makes you feel incredible! Celebrating your wins doesn’t only feel phsycially good but it allows your brain to see what you are doing is interesting and exciting rather than mundane.

So, acknowledge and celebrate small wins. This will keep ypour motivaton alive!

Roudning Up.

Let’s make 2019 great! Let’s make it the year where we actually stick to our goals and be able to look back at the year with a smile on our face because of the things we’ve achieved!