Happy New Year! Its officially 2009, it’s the start of a brand new year and a fresh start on life not only for all Americans, but for thee United States itself. We finally have a President with some intellect and common sense that is promising big changes and some hope for our ailing country. It is extremely refreshing to know that things can only get better and change is very near. Now that you don’t have to worry about our country’s future and well being, you can once again focus on yourself. Chances are you are one of the millions of Americans that make New Year’s resolutions every year and truly believe that this is the year for which you will follow through with your commitment for that huge lifestyle change. Among the top resolutions are weight loss, spend more time with family, starting an exercise regime, and quitting smoking.

Sadly statistics show that about a third of those resolutions will be dropped within the first week and sadly by mid-year, 95% of you have successfully managed to break every single resolution you made for yourself. Well don’t beat yourself up about failing, clearly you are not alone. Ladies I am very confident that I can speak for 99% of you when I say that losing weight is recurring on your list of yearly resolutions. Don’t let past failures get in your way of achieving your goals this year and growing into that “new you”.

Oprah, America’s favorite talk show queen, is going public with her decades long struggle with weight gain on both her TV show and the January issue of O Magazine. She also makes that same resolution every year and yes she does adhere to some sort of diet for a few months, loses weight, looks great and then bam, back to square one. Now this is someone that has the best trainers, nutritionists and gourmet chefs at her finger tips and she still can’t maintain her goal weight. What has Oprah and the rest of you resolution breakers been doing wrong? Maybe the whole idea of having many resolutions is wrong, perhaps we should set up to 3 goals and simply focus on improving rather than completely changing ourselves.

Here are some tips in helping you achieve your New Year’s “Goals”:

1. Be realistic.
a. Can you really achieve this goal or better yet, do you really want to achieve this goal?

2. Start small.
a. Life is all about making small changes and taking small steps. So if you want to lose some weight, don’t starve yourself! Make this change by eating lighter and smaller portions during week one. Then make an additional change, such as taking walks after dinner during week two.

3. Friend support!
a. Recruit your friends in helping you with your goal. If learning another language is what you wish to achieve, start taking lessons with a friend and support each other in keeping up with the classes. Or go online and join a forum that shares that same interest and have your new cyber buddies be your motivators.

4. Time Management.
a. You must figure out how achieving your new goal will fit into your current lifestyle and make the necessary changes. How do you expect to run in your city’s next 5K and finish with a good time if you don’t make time to practice?

5. Celebrate Every Accomplishment.
a. It’s the small changes that will eventually transform you into that new you, it will not happen over night. So why not celebrate every successful step you make? This will help you keep the momentum which will inevitably give you the drive to achieve your goals!

I hope you found these 5 tips helpful and wish you the best of luck in growing into that new you. Feel free to email me if you have any success stories or better tips in keeping your new year’s resolutions or goals. I look forward to hearing from you!

Maria (Maria.Athanasopoulos@gmail.com)