Column: What you never learned

It happens every year.

You spend all of December making huge plans for your New Years resolutions and you posses an incredible sense of determination through almost the entire first week of January.

However, almost every year this ambition dies away usually by the beginning of February and then by the end of the year, you are still out of shape, in debt and late for everything.

Here are a few tips you may have never learned to keep your new years resolutions for the full 365 days.

1. Put it all on paper. Write your resolutions down and keep them in an accessible place as reminders – tape them to your mirror, your textbooks or put them on your refrigerator door.

2. Be specific. Don’t say, “I’m going to read more.” Make a list of the books you want to finish by the end of the year or make a goal to read 15 books total.

3. Make baby steps. Rather than set a goal to save $1,000, make a New Year’s resolution to save $100 per month.

4. Make 52 tiny goals rather than one gigantic leap. Tell yourself you will eat better this week, not that you will eat better all year. Then remake the goal each week.

5. Mark your calendar. Set deadlines for yourself in your planner to tackle each step toward reaching your goal one at a time throughout the year.

6. Start as soon as possible. Go out and purchase the equipment or the books you’ll need; call now and set up an appointment with your dentist, your doctor, your trainer, your accountant ….

7. Find a role model. Find someone who has succeeded in fulfilling an ambition similar to yours. Look to this person as a reminder that it is possible to achieve your goal.

8. Hang up a picture of your role model in a place you will see every day or make them the background on your computer.

9. Check your progress regularly and give yourself an occasional reward for your efforts.

10. Make sure your reward doesn’t conflict with your resolution; celebrate a cigarette-free month with a weekend trip or a new outfit, not with a cigarette!

11. Inform friends and family of your goals and recruit them to regularly remind and support you in your endeavors.

12. Assign friends to check up on you regularly to remind you of your goals.

13. Don’t sweat the setbacks; persistence is the key.

14. Visualize how good it will be when you have achieved your goal. When you are tempted to give up, remind yourself of why you started in the first place!

15. Be reasonable. If you have never exercised in your life, don’t set a New Year’s resolution to work out everyday this year. Rather, set a goal to exercise once or twice a week and then increase to goal from there.

16. Don’t ever give up. If you mess up and forget your goals through the summer, don’t worry about it – start up again in October. The purpose is not perfection.

17. Make different resolutions each year. If last year’s resolution didn’t work, chances are it won’t work this year either. Try something different and go back to that one later.

18. Be unique. Don’t limit yourself to the typical resolutions; challenge yourself with something different. Rather than trying to lose weight, quit smoking or save money, make a resolution to laugh every day, learn a new language or to walk on your hands.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to make new goals and prepare for the future, but it’s not worth much if you don’t stick to it. This year, make a resolution to stick to your resolutions.

Emma Tippetts is a junior majoring in print journalism and law and constitutional studies. Please send any comments or how-to questions to ETippetts@cc.usu.edu