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6 Steps for Making Your New Year’s Resolutions Stick

As recruiters, Franchise Business Source is here to make sure you are meeting your goals and making informed decisions about your future. What better time to think about what the future holds than the beginning of a new year? The flip of the calendar from December to January means 12 fresh months full of exciting new possibilities.

Whether you are looking into a new franchise opportunity or you are more focused on making personal resolutions, it’s important that you make ones that you can keep. Nothing’s more frustrating than giving up your resolutions a few weeks into the new year, so this year set yourself up for success by learning how to write and keep resolutions the right way — and enjoy changing yourself or your business for the better along the way!

How to Make (and Keep) Your New Year’s Resolutions

Just saying it out loud isn’t enough. It’s all in how you make your resolutions and make them actionable. Follow these steps for making resolutions you can keep.

1. Make them easilyachievable. While big life-altering resolutions like start your own business or lose weight seem like a great idea at the beginning of the year, they are harder to measure and achieve. A better approach would be to work backward from your goal and set your resolutions as steps that you need to take each day or each month to get closer to that goal. By making smaller, more achievable goals, you are setting yourself up for success!

2. Make them realistic. During this time of year, many people have a goal to lose weight or get in shape and some will state they want to run a marathon. No matter what your resolution is, one suggestion is to accurately assess where you are at in your current abilities and determine which goal would be most realistic. So, for example, if your resolution is to run a marathon, ideas for realistic goals may be to run every day so you can improve your mile time or to join smaller races to preparefor“the big one.”

3. Make them specific and actionable. Here’s where you decide what you really want. If you want to own a business or run a 5K that’s great, but make sure to include in the resolution the “how.” For example: “I want to run a 5K by April” needs to be followed up with a plan, like a Couch to 5K program that helps you achieve your goal, one step at a time. Or, the goal of: “I want to learn which franchise opportunity would fit best with my skill set” should be followed up with a plan as well. Requesting a free assessment from us can help you plan your path to small business ownership.

4. Break your goals down. While it’s good to keep the final goal in mind, remember to break the big goal into smaller chunks. That way, you can feel good about each “mini” goal you achieve along the way. Every new distance you cover or step you take toward your career goal, the more likely you are to continue to work toward accomplishing the whole resolution.

5. Add a time frame. Now that you have your main goal, a deadline, and smaller goals, add in a time frame for every small goal in between. To get to that 5K in April, set up a time frame, for instance running two times a week or adding a quarter mile every Monday.

6. Celebrate! Be sure to acknowledge and celebrate all the little goals you achieve on the way to your big goal. Ways to celebrate include sharing your success to social media, logging your miles in a running group, buying yourself new business cards, or any little ways you see fit that will help encourage you along the way.

The way you achieve a New Year’s resolution isn’t really much different from how you should treat every goal you wish to achieve. It’s your future and you’re in charge. That’s how Franchise Business Source helps you find the right franchise solution for you — with multiple process steps and guidance that helps you to not only set your goals but also to achieve and celebrate them.

Do you want to start today on achieving your goal of business ownership? Contact us for more information!