Happy New Year!

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I hope everyone has had a good transition into the year 2015! If you've come up with some new year's resolutions, here are a couple tips that should help you follow through:

• Keep it simple - Drastic changes are more difficult to maintain over time, so start small and add more challenges after you've experienced some success. People often over-estimate what they can achieve in a year (they fly by pretty quickly!)
• Focus on the process - For example, if you want to lose weight, it might be better to have a resolution that focuses on changing your activity levels / eating habits rather than setting just a "Lose 10kg" goal. Focus on what will help make it happen, and don't get too caught up with the number on the scale. 
• Make it measurable - It's easier to keep track of your success, if you can clearly count or calculate your success. Example: "2 * 30 mins of aerobic exercise every week" is better than "Go to the gym more". 
• Keep track of your progress - Write it down, note down your starting point, write down your progress at regular intervals. 
• Check your motivation - Make sure you are doing this for yourself and because you want to. Ask yourself 'why do I want this?', 'how will this impact my life?'
• Prepare for setbacks - A year is a long enough time period that you will experience some bad days. Remember that it's easy to succeed when things are going well, try to step up to the challenge when things don't seem so easy. Ask friends for help, come up with a game plan. 

I could go on, but those are what I see as the most important points. Be sure to comment if you have more to add :)

It can also help to share your resolution(s) with others. I am personally a huge fan of setting at least one new year's resolution each year. This year I've challenged myself to accumulate 3.65 million steps ( 10,000 steps a day). To keep track of my progress, I'm using an activity tracker and I'm going to update my daily steps to a Google docs spreadsheet. 

Anu Nässi