Ironicaly, the first thing you should do is not consider "New Year Resolution" as a desire to change something. I consider these resolutions as "I should do this".

The real trick about this is to make difference between "I should" with "I want". A real goal is something you have a burning desire for.

Imagine you are in the front of the woman (or man) of your dream. S(he)'s awesome, looks great, is intelligent (you've listen to her (his) conversation with
her (his) friend) and makes your heart beat. Ok. You fall in love with her and it seems reciprocal. S(he) looks at you with these innocents eyes and all you want is to tell her (him) how s(he) makes you feel good at this very moment. You have the burning desire to tell her (him) how much s(he)'s pretty (or handsome) before s(he) lefts the place. It's not like if you were standing at the same place and were watching all these couples, saying to yourself: "I should have a girlfriend or a boyfriend". Right?

The difference between a resolution and a real goal is that you will always achieve 99,9% of the things you have a desire for. There's a lot more chances that you attempt a goal you had 100/100 on the desire scale.

Avoid procrastionation
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How often did you heard or said "I'm going to start working out, but I'm waiting until after New Year."

New Year is a good time to take resolutions because the holiday stresses are over and everything seems to be perfect.

But the best time to work on a real goal is NOW. If you really have burning desire for something, set the goal and start NOW. Don't wait until you find the right time because you won't find. There's always reasons to procrastinate.

The biggest problem with New Year resolution is that it's a once in a year event. Goal setting is a process, not an event. So take a pencil right now and ask to yourself what is the real goal you want to achieve with a burning desire in 2005?

My goal is to give you good advices in 2005 and kick butt to all these beautiful girls and get back my physical shape. Do you think I'll achieve this? Keep tuned. ;-)

Let's do some vizualisations.
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You decide you want to lose some fat and live a healthier lifestyle. You read all the books, get a nutritional strategy, have your trainer designed your workout schedule, and you are full of motivations to get the body of your dreams. It seems that it even starts working!

But once you begin to get some results, you also begin to cheat and skip workouts. What's the problems? Your self concept. Have a pencil and a sheet and fill the blank space: I am _____________".
Write down everything you think about yourself.

To be lean and healthy, you must see yourself as being capable of achieving the body of your dreams and worthy of maintaining it. If you visualize yourself as a fat, pear-shaped person, you’ll NEVER be a lean, fat-free person until you see yourself as this person.

Catch it?

Work it 'til you achieve this.

Fitness Diva