Happy New Year! It’s that time again. People are making resolutions with great intentions—and let them go pretty early on. I am not immune but I have gotten better over the years. I thought I’d share my top ten tips for making New Year’s resolutions work:

1. Set goals not resolutions. A great social worker I know, Jeanne Mitchler-Fiks, gave me this advice years ago and it has made a huge difference for me personally and for my clients. Making a goal recognizes the reality that you’re on a path to achieving something but not there yet. Resolutions can connote something more absolute—are you exercising three times a week or not? And when you make it to the gym once, you are not fulfilling your resolution, so why keep going?
2. Set goals that are meaningful to you. Are you saving money because you know you are supposed to? Or because you want to travel to Argentina, give to causes you care about, or save for a child’s education? Rooting your goals in a deeper underlying meaning, something that speaks to your heart, energizes you to stay on track.
3. Aim for 1-2 goals, not 10. Malcolm Gladwell cites in Outliers that it takes 10,000 repetitions to master a skill. Because it takes time to learn something or make a behavior part of your routine, focus on a few things that are most important to you.
4. Start where you are. Remember when you learned to brush your teeth. How long did it take before you automatically did it, wouldn’t think of skipping? That’s where practice comes into play. Those 10,000 repetitions engrain behaviors until they are automatic. So, if you are just starting to go to the gym, set a goal that’s realistic based on where you are today, not as if you have gone five days a week for years!
5. Recognize if you are a beginner. The difference between never exercising or meditating to doing it at all is actually pretty significant. I have clients who beat themselves up because they “only” went once last week, “only” meditated once in a month, when that’s real progress. So, recognize the stretch you’re making.
6. Plan for incremental progress. Set a goal for the year, and then plan for a reasonable step you can achieve short term. I had at one point a daily meditation practice but fell off the wagon in 2010. I am committed to meditating 20 minutes a day, five days a week by December. But to restart, I will commit to 15 minutes twice a week and work my way up.
7. Find a buddy. Another coach and I developed our goals together, and will check in regularly to help each other stay on track throughout 2011.
8. Reflect mid-year. I revisit my goals to reflect on what I have learned, to see if they are still relevant to me, ajdust course as it makes sense, and see the progress I have made.
9. Celebrate progress. Congratulations! You have some repetitions under your belt. How are you going to pat yourself on the back for how far you’ve come?
10. Have fun! How can you have fun as you fulfill your goals? Reward yourself after you meet a milestone? Meet your buddy someplace fun? Making goals less of a chore and more fun helps us fulfill and enjoy life.