With the New Year comes a clean slate, a chance for change and for improvement. For many of us this means a New Year’s resolution or two, the most common being to get in shape or to quit smoking.

Also many of us would have set goals to achieve in the New Year such as to get a promotion or to take up a new hobby.

One of the best ways to keep resolutions or goals is for every goal you make, have a clear, concise, realistic plan or set of steps to achieve the goal so that you have a clear picture in your head as to how to get from the starting point (where you are now) to the end (achieving your goal).

Tell other people and ask for their help in achieving the goal or resolution. For example, if you are trying to lose weight see if a friend will train with you in the gym or go for a run with you.

Have faith in yourself and tell yourself positive things about your goal and how great it will be when you achieve it. Its very important to have a reward in sight for all the hard work– for giving up cigarettes it could be to put all the money you’ve saved in a jar and put it towards a holiday so as you have an incentive for staying off them. Whatever it takes at the start to help break the habit!

Another tip is to buy a calendar and for every day that you complete your goal place a large x on the calendar. It’s a lot easier to do things one day at a time– instead of looking into the future just concentrate on the task at hand. If you skip one workout or have one cigarette it’s too easy to skip the next one or have the second and third cigarette, so don’t start!

The longer you keep on the path toward your goal the more it will become a part of you and will become second nature. Keep the goal in mind and you will achieve it.

And remember, if you do have a moment of weakness and have a cigarette or pig out, chalk it down to experience and move on, don’t abandon your goal altogether!