Happy New Year!

 Stop Making New Year's Resolutions That Are Sure To Fail -

Do What Works (And Is Fun) Instead

Most of us know that making New Year's resolutions doesn't work. Over the years we vow to exercise, eat better, save more money, work harder, quit smoking. But life happens, holidays end and soon other things take away our attention.

I believe that we resist making positive changes because it all sounds so negative and a lot like drudgery: diet, exercise, quit smoking. Who wants drudgery? Life is too short for drudgery.

So, why not make New Year's promises that are fun, easy to keep and good for us instead? Here is how:

First, take five minutes to write down a Bucket List of all the things you would like to experience, buy and accomplish. For example:

1. Fall in love

2. Write a book

3. Buy a home

4. Retire and Travel

5. Sail around the world

Write everything that comes to mind. Keep adding ideas to this list no matter how unrealistic or crazy.

Next, go through your Bucket List and at the end of each line add the year in which you want to accomplish that goal. Like this:

1. Fall in love - 2022

2. Write a best selling book - 2023

3. Buy a home - 2025

4. Retire and Travel – 2030

5. Sail around the world – 2035

Soon, you'll realize three things. The first one is that you are having fun. The second one is that you want everything now, this year if not this month. And the third is that you'll start sorting out your priorities. For example if you have a good job now, you might focus on making lots of money first and retire in five/ten/twenty years. Or if you don't have a good job and you love to travel more than anything, you decide to take a year off to CouchSurf and do Workaways. Hey, you might even crew on a sail boat in Greece and meet your soul mate while traveling...

Next, make a table like this:

2022	Fall in love Make more money Learn to sail Take a writing course
2023	Write a book, become a millionaire
2025	Get married, buy a home, have a family
2030	Retire and travel, buy a sailboat
2035	Sail around the world
...	- and so on...

Ok, so this could be a 20 or even a 40 year plan for you – it depends on how old you are now. You might also find that you tend to be more specific earlier on in your planning and less so in the future. It's all good.

Next, make a new table for this year with two columns and 12 rows. Fill in all the things that you already have scheduled such as weddings, birthdays, appointments for surgery, conferences... Then take the items you hope to do this year and enter them into the monthly slots adding some ideas of how you can accomplish this. Like this:

January	Fall in love: sign up for the Guardian's Soulmates, create a killer profile. Send a message to 10 prospects. Make more money: put your credit card in the freezer. Return gifts you don't want. Make your own coffee – you never meet people at Starbucks anyway. Write a best seller: Create a blog or a Facebook page for your book to be. Remember to add the high school grade A in English to your profile. Read my book, How to Write Your Book One Simple Step at a Time. Learn to sail: sign up for swimming lessons at the local pool. (you might meet someone there)
February	Be open to love: Ask one person for a date. Give a gift on Valentine's Day to someone. Anyone – even your mother. Invite friends and/or family for a pot luck dinner. Make an easy dish using a recipe from Greece. Increase net worth: Send minimum payment and an extra $100 you saved by not buying coffee to your credit card. Invest the remaining $20 you saved on a Learn to Sail book from the Guardian Bookshop. Write a book: Begin writing for five minutes each day. Update your blog. Join a writer's group. Learn to sail: borrow a book from the library on sailing around the world. Put your name down for a dinghy sailing course in summer. Buy a swimming pass for one month. Walk to the pool.
March	Be open to love: Ask the friendly woman/man from the swimming pool for a coffee. Invite friends and/or family for a pot luck dinner. Make a healthy dish using a recipe from Italy. Increase net worth: Take leftovers from Sunday pot luck dinner to work for lunch. Send minimum payment and an extra $150 you saved by not buying coffee or lunch to pay off your credit card. Once the credit card is paid off, deposit the same amount into your “Buy a house/sail boat” savings account. Ask for a promotion and a raise at work. Write an advice blog: Update blog. Write coherent comments on The Guardian website. Read one of them in front of your writing group. Learn to sail: Buy a swimming pass for three months. Get a swimming badge. Walk up and down the stairs instead of taking the elevator.
April	Increase net worth: Send an opinion article to The Guardian. Send it to any other publication you enjoy reading that might be interested in it.
May	Family reunion – Brother's wedding. Invite someone you like. Smile more often.
June	Learn to sail class. Join dinghy sailing club.
July	Help out with the sailing club.
August	Take your girlfriend/boyfriend sailing.
September	Sign up for a Greek language class or download free lessons online. Learn one word per day.
October	Sign up for Netflix and watch movies in Greek.
November	Take a sailing navigation course.
December	Propose to your soulmate.

Now, doesn't that look more exciting than: go on a diet, exercise, quit smoking, and pay off debts? Yet, as you can see in January, I've tricked myself into healthy eating (some take-out coffees have 400 calories), exercise and increasing my net worth as steps towards fun goals of buying a house, retiring, traveling and sailing around the world. Furthermore, many of the goals are achievable in a short time.

At the end of each month or whenever you catch yourself, update this plan to take into account variables such as getting (or not) a promotion, meeting that soulmate, or deciding to learn to rock climb instead of sailing. Also, you might find yourself refining your goals as I did from January to February where I shifted my attitude of “falling in love” to the more easily achievable of “becoming open to love”.

Finally, use your online calendar to get automatic reminders of all those fun things you want to do all year.

Sticking to New Year's resolutions becomes a lot easier when it is a part of a fun, long term plan with exciting goals. And having just re-examined my last year's, I can guarantee you that it is possible to turn your dreams into reality. I'm living on a sailboat in Greece, have just had my first and second book signing event, and am surrounded by lovely friends. 

Happy New Year!