Seven Great Ways to Make Your Good Intentions Last

All of us have good intentions for positive change in our lives. We come up with great goals – like losing weight, getting fit, writing a book, changing career, quitting smoking, cutting down on caffeine. All too often, though, our good intentions don’t last very long.  

Here’s how to boost your chances of success. Try one or more of these seven tips today:

Those are all perfectly good goals … but by tackling them all at once, you’re shooting yourself in the foot before you’ve even begun on your journey to success. Instead of trying to take on everything all at once, pick just one or two goals to focus on. That way, you’ll be far more likely to stick with them.

• #2: Be Accountable
  Accountability is a powerful motivating force. If you’re the only person who knows about your goal, it’s very easy to scoff those cookies, skip that run, or ignore your daily word count target on your book. When other people are involved, though, you’ll be much more likely to do what you’ve said you’ll do.

  You can be accountable to just one person – perhaps someone who’s working towards a similar goal to you. Or, if you want, you can be accountable to lots of people – how about posting your weigh-in results on Facebook, for instance? 

• #3: Keep Track
  Recording your progress has two great benefits: it lets you see how far you’ve come, and it encourages you to stay mindful about your goal. For instance, if you find yourself eating “just one little treat” which you know you shouldn’t be having, then a food diary can help you realize how much those little extras are adding up.

There are lots of ways you can track your progress towards your goal. You might keep a spreadsheet, noting down daily or weekly activities; you could check off days on your calendar; you could keep a diary and write about how you’re feeling and whether or not you’re making progress. Find a technique that works for you.

• #4: Build on Existing Habits
  Much of what we do each day is habitual. The time you get up, your morning routine, what you eat for breakfast, whether you grab a coffee on the way to work … all habit.
  When you want to add new habits into your life, it can be useful to build on an existing one. For instance, if you want to get better at eating breakfast, you could try having a banana right before you jump in the shower: that way, you’re less likely to forget altogether. 

• #5: Focus on the Benefits
  Sometimes, it’s tough to stay motivated when you’re working towards a long-term goal. It might feel like you’re doing a lot of work without much reward in sight.

Remind yourself on a regular basis about why you’re doing this. For instance, if you’re eating a calorie-controlled diet to lose weight, the benefits of this might be that you’ll be healthier, and you’ll feel more confident about your body.

• #6: Enjoy the Process
  As much as you can, try to find ways to enjoy your journey towards your goal: not only will you be happier for it, you’ll also be more likely to actually stick with your good intentions. 

If your goal is to exercise on a regular basis, for instance, look for forms of exercise that you truly enjoy (and there’ll be at least one or two)! That could be swimming, cycling, walking, running … or even something a bit quirky like fencing, playing Frisbee, or trampolining! You don’t have to be in the gym every day to be active.

• #7: Don’t Think “All or Nothing”
  One of the reasons why we give up on goals is because we fall into an “all or nothing” mindset. If you’ve ever attempted to diet, you’ve probably experienced this: as soon as you “break” your diet by eating a bag of chips or a slice of cake, you decide that you might as well give up for the rest of the day – or the rest of the week. 

However, a small slip isn’t going to make a big difference to your overall progress – unless you let it. Instead of trying to be perfect, aim to work towards your goal 80% of the time, and don’t worry for the other 20%. Yes, you might make slightly slower progress, but you’ll also be much more likely to reach the finish line.

What good intentions do you have for your own life right now? What are you doing to help them to last? Let us know in the comments…