On January 18th of this year, I finally decided I was ready to make some New Year’s resolutions. I’ve never really done the resolution thing in the past, and so I wasn’t compelled to do it come December 31 or January 1. But I recognize that goals are good — and so I came up with some. If you’re already frustrated with your original resolutions, or are still looking to make some, read on.
Resolution or a Goal?
Unlike some people, I don’t really see resolutions and goals as being the same thing. To me, a goal is what you want to achieve, while a resolution is how you plan to do it. After all, you can resolve to get out of credit card debt — but if you don’t stop using credit cards and increase your payments, it probably won’t happen. Instead, your goal should be to reduce credit card debt by X dollars. Matching resolutions could be to stop using credit cards and increase your payments by 20% (or $100/month, or whatever you can afford).
Photo by lululemon athletica via Flickr
Make Resolutions to Meet your Goals
You should set both resolutions and goals that are attainable without being too easy — you want to stretch yourself to really see results. At the same time, overreaching often leads to failure, so be realistic. You will know you were successful at meeting your resolutions if you reach your goal. Make sure both are quantifiable so that you can truly measure success — “lose weight” is not a quantifiable goal, while “lose 10 lbs is.” “Decrease my student loan balance” is not. “Make more money” is not quantifiable, but “bring in $250 per month” is. Here are some examples of measurable goals and related resolutions:
Goal: Contribute additional $250/month to savings or debt payments
Resolutions:
- Decrease coffee purchases from 5x/week to 2x/week
- Sell at least $25 worth of items on Craigslist or Ebay each month
- Divert $50 each month from restaurant spending to student loan payments
- Contribute $10/week to Roth IRA
- Bring lunch at least 4 days/wk
Goal: Lose 10 lbs
Resolutions:
- Drink 64 oz of water each day
- Drink no soda
- Attend …