For many of us January is one month of the year when we reflect on what we would like to change in our life, set goals, start new projects, decide to let go of negative habits and improve our character. I honestly believe that if we all managed to keep the same level of motivation, excitement and determination as we have in January, for the rest year, we would not need to read books about overcoming procrastination or staying focused on our goals.

Unfortunately, February comes and our enthusiasm and commitment wears thin. We find ourselves slowly slipping back to our old habits and old lifestyle. And finally, after about a month-and-a-half we throw our hands up in the air and declare, “Forget about it! It is too hard”. Then, of course, we wait for the next year to try again.

This year can be different!

Here are Seven Top Tips to help you stick to your New Year’s resolutions throughout the rest of the year:

1.    Have realistic expectations. In the best tradition of the  holiday season, when we decide to pursue a certain goal, we often overestimate our future level of motivation and productivity and underestimate possible implications that we might encounter on our way. Do not expect to see immediate results of your efforts. Miracles do happen, but only to people who are willing to wait for them! Keep that in mind when you set deadlines for your goals.

Solution: Imagine that my New Year’s resolution is very similar to yours. How long do you think it will take me to reach this goal, given that I have a full time job, two young children that I have to pick up after school and a Salsa Class on Wednesdays and Fridays? So what is your verdict? Most likely, this is the same deadline you should consider for yourself. It has been proven that we are a lot better at making estimations for other people than for ourselves.

2. Pick just one goal. I know that it might be tempting to go after one career-related goal, one personal life goal, one health goal, one self-improvement goal and top that all off with a three-week vacation, a great book that you are dying to write and Japanese language courses that you always wanted to take. Have you ever tried juggling with 3-7 tennis balls? Try it. I bet you, that you will drop at least two balls on your first try. Juggling with 3-7 goals is no different. You will give up on all of them before you know it.

Solution: Prioritize. Choose just one resolution that is the most important to you at the moment and fully concentrate your efforts on it. The rest of the resolutions on your list can wait.

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When we fail to accomplish something, we try to explain to ourselves and others why it happened. Sometimes we understand the true reasons and learn from our mistakes. And sometimes we are just making up excuses.

Here are the 5 worst Goal-Setting excuses. Make sure that you do not rationalize (read “rational – lies”) your inability of achieving your goals too much.

1. “I need to learn ALL the information, before I apply it!”

This is the perfectionist speaking in you. Desire to make it perfect is a huge roadblock to your growth, and productivity. If you believe that you must learn everything you possibly can about goal setting before actually setting a goal, you will most likely achieve very little or nothing. The truth is that humans learn best by a trial-and-error method. You cannot become a professional, unless you start as a beginner. Similar you cannot say which goal setting techniques work best for you, unless you actually try them.

Solution: As difficult as it may seem to let go of your desire to do everything perfectly, you must do it. Apply what you learn immediately to see how it works in real life. It might not work out, but you will still gain valuable insight from the experience. On the other hand, if you do not try you WILL fail for sure.

2. “I don’t have time”
This is a good one (especially when it is stated with a slightly desperate tone of voice). It implies that you are really busy doing something else that is VERY important. I often used this excuse myself, but in the long run if you are very busy, if you continuously worry about being late, if you do not have time to pursue your goals and improve your quality of life it can mean two things:1) you are not managing your time right; 2) you can not get your priorities straight. Sometimes it is actually both.

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Have you ever said that you are going to do something, wrote it down in our to-do list, but then despite all of your good intentions, somehow you didn’t do it?

These uncompleted tasks suck our energy, make us feel guilty and don’t let us relax for one second, and yet we continue to postpone them!

Why do we do it?

Psychologists say that it is because we are genetically coded to be “avoidance machines”! We are hard wired to seek pleasure and avoid pain. And when I say pain, I actually mean any task that: a) sounds boring or not urgent, b) requires certain amount of effort, c) doesn’t inspire or motivate us. 80% of the tasks fall under all three categories.
As it turns out the most effective way to avoid procrastination is NOT applying inhuman mental effort and force yourself into doing something. Nor it is waiting till the last moment when the task appears into “Urgent! Must be done today! Seriously, it can’t wait!” category and then complete it in 15 minutes. The smartest and easiest way to overcome procrastination is use your weaknesses to your own benefit.

How to make procrastination work for you?

Usual motivational techniques teach you to think of all the benefits that you will achieve after completing the task. This method does work, but for most of us promise of future reward is not nearly as stimulating as a threat of punishment.
Professional self-help coaches know about it and are actively using this information to “motivate” their clients into following through with their goals.

What they do is ask their clients Three Little Questions:

1. The first question is about your goal. You are asked to state what it is that you would like to achieve and figure out step-by-step plan of how you can do it.

2. The second question sounds somewhat strange, “Can I hold you accountable for this goal?”  At this point your mind goes, “Hold on a minute…accountable? Me?!” and you start to suspect that it is not going to be pretty, but you summon up your courage and say, “sure! You can hold me accountable!”

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