“New year, new hopes.”

This is what almost every one of us is thinking when we closed the year 2018 and face 2-0-1-9. Most of us are bringing all the lessons we learned from our past experiences, and are very optimistic about what surprises await us this year.

You have probably listed down some of your ‘resolutions’ you planned early on in hopes that this year will be better off than those that passed. It probably might include goals for personal career growth, some are to improve personality, while some are just for fun and leisure!

We totally support you on that!

But how long are you going to push through on setting this year’s goals? 3 weeks? 2 months at most? Many fail to stick to their resolution. So before jumping into creating a new resolution, we’ve listed down some of the things that can help you make your ‘resolutions’ more achievable and manageable:

Set a realistic target.
You’d like to lose weight? How many pounds? Do you want to add up on your savings? Up to how much? Do you want to travel? Name a place.
Sometimes we have to assess ourselves first and consider if we can meet our goal. After thinking it through, make sure to be specific. So instead of saying “I’ll lose weight”, perhaps say, “I’ll lose 3 pounds.”

Give yourself a deadline.
You know the figures, but how much time would it take for you to make it happen? Three months? Six months?
Time is equally important in setting goals and measuring progress. So instead of saying “I’ll lose 3 pounds”, you can say, “I’ll lose 3 pounds by the end of March”.

Write it down.
Jotting it down is a gesture of declaration. It somewhat sets your mind of the things that you want to happen. Writing it down also gives you something tangible that you can look at every time or go back to when another year closes. Try writing your resolution and you’ll be surprised as you tick each goal one by one.

Take small, baby steps daily.
Your goals may be far from where you are right now, but you can do it. Little by little. Saving up for a certain amount might mean giving up a few cups of expensive coffee. Losing a few pounds might mean waking up earlier than usual for a few minutes of exercise. Being part of the country’s solution to poverty might simply mean going to work and being excellent in what you do.

You can be the change in your own simple and little ways.