Need Help with Your New Year's Resolutions?

What did you resolve to do in 2010? Did you start yet, or, like the people I overheard at the grocery store, did you wait until the first business week of the new year to begin?

 

Here's my professional life resolution: I'd like to be better at networking. I know, I write about this stuff for a living, but everyone could use a little improvement.

 

Being better at networking -- like numerous other resolutions -- is pretty open and a little vague, so where do I begin? I've looked up some best practices to help myself and hopefully you too.

 

5 Tips for Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

 

Announce Your Intentions

 

A recent Wall Street Journal article recommends publicly proclaiming what you plan to do. This reminds me of a morning news program that showed public embarrassment is the number one motivator in weight loss. Six people committed to losing a certain amount of weight by a specific date, or else they had to wear bathing suits on national TV. All of them lost the set amount, and many of them exceeded it. By following this approach your commitment is made to others as well.

 

Take It One Step at a Time

 

The WSJ piece also discusses the need to break your resolutions down. Staring at one major goal can make it seem so insurmountable that you will likely give up before you get started. So if I start my commitment by identifying networking groups and events, that first step triggers a feeling of accomplishment and will help to keep me going.

 

Get Better Friends

 

This tip is from a Time article on Yahoo! and is based on the premise that we imitate the people around us. The article reads: "…the latest research shows that things like happiness, quitting smoking and obesity can spread like a contagion through social networks. So, surround yourself with friends who can also be role models. 'Make sure that people you hang out with are people who look and act the way you would like to. Social imitation is the easiest form not only of flattery but of self-improvement,' says Stanton Peele, author of Seven Tools to Beat Addiction."

 

Schedule It

 

Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent's "How to Keep Your New Year's Resolution (Without Feeling Tortured)" article on The Huffington Post acknowledges how busy people are today. "It's not enough to just say that you're going to take up jogging or always take off your makeup at night before passing out," they write. "It's not even enough to write it down. Instead, take a look at your life, find the free time that's hiding in tiny chunks here and there, and make a new schedule for yourself that includes which days you'll be getting up early to take a jog before work and what time you need to turn off Conan to take off that damn mascara."

 

Don't Be Upset by Setbacks

 

New year's resolutions are tough, otherwise we wouldn't need to make them. According to Psych Central, "…if you know ahead of time that there are going to be times in which your resolve weakens or you don't live up to a certain step or schedule you've set, it can help when it does happen. It's a part of the process and means nothing more than a temporary setback. Putting such temporary setbacks into their proper perspective can help you move beyond them and put them behind you." So counting on these lapses will get you closer to achieving your goals.

 

USA.gov has a list of the most popular new year's resolutions, each linking to resources that can help you fulfill them. And if one of your new year's resolutions includes improving your work life, check out our special report: Kick-Start Your Career This Year. Good luck, and let us know how it goes!

 

 

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