It is three weeks into the new year and how many of us are still being loyal to our resolution?  Hopefully whatever was picked for this year is obtainable and not something like winning the PowerBall.  Each year I tend to pick a personality trait and something health related as my goal for the year.  Usually it is something generic enough that by the end of the year I have no real idea on if the goal was actually accomplished.  This would leave me not feeling too bad about the goal at the end of the year but I also felt that I really hadn’t changed.  So last year I decided to try something different.

I’ve never really enjoyed salads but knew I needed to start eating healthy.  There was no way I could just dive in and start eating a salad everyday so I made it simple.  Each week I would eat one salad.  If I missed a week then I would double up another week to make it up.  To add another level to it I teamed up with a coworker who decided to give up smoking.  I made a deal to myself that as long as he kept to his goal I had to keep to mine, no matter what.  There really is no tie in between our goals but I knew that if I add another person to the mix then I will have a better chance at keeping my goal.

2015 has come and gone and I have had at least 52 salads and my coworker didn’t smoke once last year.  Now that we’re in 2016 I’ve upped the ante and now have to eat two salads a week.  Nothing exciting, but with any luck I’ll not only get myself to enjoy salads but will also get to the point where I don’t need goals to keep me eating healthy.  It will just become a habit.

Earlier this month HBR IdeaCast had a podcast covering ways to keep your goals.  I suggest listening to it, at 20 minutes in length it isn’t going to take up much of your time.  Check it out at HBR IdeaCast, Achieve Your Goals (Finally).  Some of the advice they gave were to keep the goal were to be specific about what you want to accomplish, be flexible, try replacing a bad behavior with a good one, and be prepared for temptation.  Putting these strategies together should help you to keep your resolution this year and end the year on a success.