I started out my post on New Years Resolutions and How to Stick With Them with a comment on where the heck 2015 went. And now here we are with half of 2016 just…gone. (Note: For the follow up post, click HERE)
In fact, this post is going live on exactly July 1st. WHAT?!
Is there really even 24 hours in a day?! There can’t be. But I guess science has already proven that there is. 😉
Anyway, with half the year gone, I thought it would be a great time to have a little check in and see how we are doing with our New Years Resolutions.
How’s progress coming? Have you stuck with your goals? Have you completed them early?
If you have fallen off the wagon, there is no better time to get back up and try again. You’ve got this! In my original post, I outlined 4 tips that you can us to help with sticking to a New Years Resolution. I’ve outlined them below as a reminder.
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
If something hasn’t gone right, don’t sweat it! There are times when everyone can’t make that extra car or mortgage payment to help pay down the principal. The important thing is to keep going!
Instead, be thankful you were able to make the car payment in the first place and had some extra cash for whatever came up.
Set One or Two Goals to Focus on All Year
Setting a lot of goals for yourself or even a couple that are similar (like paying off debt) can cause your brain to become overwhelmed. If that happens, you won’t want to put any effort in due to feeling burnt out.
Instead, pay off that credit card method first and then go after your goal of paying down your mortgage. I recommend not trying both.
If you set yourself two goals that are in two separate categories, your mind will have a much easier time sorting out what needs to be done for what goal. For example, if you have a goal to lose weight and pay off your credit card, you are more likely to succeed than if you were trying to pay off 2 credit cards at the same time.
Reward Yourself
When you reach one of your goals, do something for yourself that you don’t normally get to do. Treat yourself to a nice dinner. Get a massage. Buy that more expensive purse you wanted. Pick up that video game you’ve been dying to try.
Rewarding yourself will help you to relax after all of that hard work you put in to achieve your goal. It’s the same idea that happens when you are rewarded or complimented by your boss at work. You feel appreciated for the work you’ve put in which makes you desire to continue to do a great job. Note: This is my favorite part of achieving a goal. 😉
Always Be Goal Minded
In addition to setting yourself the one or two big goals, it’s smart to always have smaller goals in mind as well. Training your mind to be goal minded will develop the parts of the brain that control commitment so you’ll be more likely to stick to your goals and achieve them.
You can either break down your large goal to smaller segments, or you can set yourself other small, more easily attainable goals to keep you motivated for your large goal. An example of this would be a weight loss goal. To make that more easily attainable, you can focus on setting a smaller goal of exercising twice a week. If you attain that goal, that helps your overall goal of losing weight. It makes it much easier!
Update on My Goals
The goal I set for myself and my family at the end of last December was to pay off a couple of larger debts that we have. The first was our Disney Vacation Club (DVC) loan. When we started focusing on this back in October, we had a little under $10,000 left. I included it in our goal for New Years to see if it would help us pay it off quicker.
The second piece of debt was our car loan. That started out at just over $16,000. Together, that’s around $26,000 I’m hoping to pay off this year.
I’m excited to say that the DVC loan has been paid off since the beginning of February! Woot Woot!
Our car loan is well on its way out the door as well. I’m shooting for paying it off in August. Super excited to be getting rid of this one too!
Together, this will free up Almost $600 a month! YES!
Get Back Up
If you’ve fallen off the horse and let your goal go by the wayside, I want to encourage you to pick yourself back up, dust off the ole New Years Resolution, and get back out there and do it.
You’ve got this!
There’s no sense in dwelling on what you haven’t accomplished. Whatever your goal is, you wouldn’t have set it as a goal if it didn’t mean something to you.
Maybe your debt is eating you alive. Maybe you’ve made some bad food choices and your health is suffering. Perhaps you have a great idea for a book but haven’t started writing yet.
Whatever your goal is, think about why you want the end result. What was the original reason for you to try and get where you want to go? Without debt, you’d have a better quality of life and be able to give more. If you were eating correctly, you wouldn’t be so tired all the time and feel better throughout the day. If you are able to get your book written, you may be responsible for helping a ton of people.
Believe me. It’s worth it.
Examination
How are you coming along with your goals? What is keeping you motivated? What robbed you of your motivation?
