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Resolve 1: Think about how what you do now will affect your future self-My 11-year-old daughter told me about one of her guy friends who – now on the brink of puberty -- has to remind himself to add putting on deodorant to his daily hygiene routine. The slathering is much a part of the daily routine for an adult, but a wasted maximum 20 seconds (10 seconds per armpit) for an adolescent boy. To make him remember, he put a note on his bathroom mirror, “Don’t forget to put deodorant. Your future self will thank you.” We both laughed at the story, but I realized how it changed a chore that may not pay off now, into something that will surely pay off in the future. Resolutions are thought of in terms of deprivation: I will cut down on desserts so I can lose weight, I’ll skip the sales to save money, and I’ll stop smoking. But when you think of how your future self will look in those skinny jeans, how much money you’ll save from buying cigarettes or how your (far off into the) future self will feel with a nice healthy retirement fund, then it becomes less of a chore but a goal with clear benefit. And something your future self will surely thank you for.
Resolve 2: Keep track of the numbers Numbers don’t lie and studies show that whether it’s losing weight or saving money, keeping track is key and while you may hate the idea of weighing yourself regularly there is a way to make your eyeball with the scale less of a daunting exercise (pardon the pun).
Love handles don’t form overnight and if you check your scale and monitor your weight, the pounds are less likely to pile on while you weren’t looking. If you do the math, it’s easier to ditch 3 pounds rather than 30. Apply the numbers principle to saving money, but with a slightly different opposite outlook. In this case, a little goes a long way. Even if you manage to save only a little money by following the simple golden rules of paying yourself first and saving at least 20 percent of your income, what started out looking like a petty cash fund will sooner or later resemble a nest egg. Illustrado columnist, Francisco Colayco says that time is actually the best asset that we have because as the formula says: Principal x Rate x Time = Interest From the principal (or the much money you staved away), you will get interest. And the best thing about interest is that the bigger the principal, the higher the interest – which you can also think of as passive income to entice yourself more to put away a little something every month.
Resolve 3: Say it with pictures If your resolution include intangible things like being less stressed out, more work life balance, or spending more quality time with your family, then don’t just write them down, picture them. Cut out pictures from magazines and make a dream board or a collage of pictures. Think of this as your visual goal / scorecard.
Hang it in a place you can see every day to remind you of what you want to achieve. Like the cliché that says a picture painting a thousand words, when you can clearly visualize the fun times you’ll have bonding with your family or the serenity of having more time for yourself, that’s another one step closer to achieving that goal.
Resolve 4: Be attached to your goal Mark Murphy, author of Hard Goals: The Secret of Getting from Where You Are to Where You Want to Be says that we’re so used to thinking of setting goals that are along the lines of SMART. S-specific M-measurable A-attainable R-relevant T-timebound Murphy says that SMART goals miss out on one crucial thing – an emotional attachment to our goals. He suggests that instead of SMART goals, we have HARD goals: H-heartfelt A-animated R-required D-difficult Citing the common resolution to quit smoking, Murphy says, develop an emotional attachment to the end result of your goal, like how quitting smoking will add years to your life so you can enjoy being with your family more.
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