Many people create their personal list of New Year’s resolutions and then abandon them by February or March. This year, be different, create a roadmap of how you will achieve your goals.
For example, if one of your resolutions is to organize your financial records (and that’s a great goal in these uncertain times as well as every year at tax time), your road map should start with buying certain supplies – perhaps an accordion file, certainly a fireproof box, file folders. Then, start organizing your papers by different categories. Your road map should state when you are going to take each step, maybe week by week or month by month.
If your goal is to lose weight, then write down very specific ways in which you will make changes – choosing different foods to lower your calorie count, exercising a certain number of days per week. Write down your exercise goals in your calendar so that you will actually do them. Find an activity that gets you off the couch that burns calories, dancing, gardening, tennis with your friends – they all will help.
Maybe you need an outsider to keep you motivated. If you are strapped for cash, enlist the help of friends. Everyone is great at keeping someone else’s New Year’s resolutions. They will offer good suggestions and provide accountability. If you want to keep your friends out of the picture, hire a professional. There are life coaches, personal trainers, nutritionists, financial planners, and lawyers. They will all help you achieve different goals.
Add estate planning to your New Year’s resolutions. Everyone who is over the age of 18 needs certain basic documents and those documents need to be updated periodically. If you have never had an estate plan done, call a lawyer who specializes in estate planning now. Every one of us has a story of someone who died unexpectedly. And when they die without an estate plan, it makes it so much harder for the family left behind.
Get a fresh start now and get your life moving in the direction that makes you happy . Then add in those items that you know that you should do but always put off. Once you do those things, you will feel so relieved. And accomplishing these goals is a wonderful gift to your family.
