Make a fresh start in 2014

Every New Year’s eve you make plans to improve on yourselves in the coming year. The aim is to strive to become  better than you were the previous years.

I believe sometimes you get tired of making fresh resolutions because you were not able to accomplish them  but that should not make you lose hope. 

It is easy to set goals for the year, but fulfilling them takes determination and self-discipline.

Whatever your goal, take some time to consider how you plan to achieve it and what can get in your way to prevent you from being successful.  

Quite often, many people give up within a few weeks because they don’t have the courage to cope with obstacles that come along the way.

Here are tips to help you realise your aspirations for the year.

• Be very specific about what you want to accomplish. To achieve something, you have to be very clear what it is. For instance, if you want to improve on your grades in a particular subject, you should devote more time to that subject.

• Break it down to smaller, manageable steps. One of the biggest obstacles to achieving goals is trying to do too much at once.  For instance, if  you  want to perform better in school,  you must tackle a subject at a time and devote more time to the ones that you find challenging.

• You can tell your friends, siblings and parents about your resolutions so that they can guide or remind you to help keep you on track when you go astray.

• Think about how you would feel when you are able to accomplish that goal. What change it will bring in your life. You can decide to lose weight and  if you are able to do it think about the health benefits and how that will affect your life. Having this in mind will encourage you.

• Never think that achieving your goals will be easy so that when you face any problems you decide to give up.  You have to anticipate obstacles, hitches  and  problems that can arise. Then you  develop ways to deal with them.  

• Once you make an effort to reach your goals that  should  spur you on, don’t insist on being perfect.  Be happy with yourself once you make some real effort at your aims.

• At the end of every month, you can check to see if you are on track and make corrections if necessary. 

• In times of difficulty, you should always seek help. It is not everything that you can do  by yourself. You might need help at times and don’t hesitate to do that. 

What you want to achieve is possible, but it isn’t going to happen by itself. Planning, determination, and trying to be ‘better’, not perfect, will increase your chances of success. All the best as you work at your goals this year.