Tip to help you achieve your new year resolutions

If your New Year's resolutions from last year have
gone unresolved, you're not alone. Now a new year
offers another opportunity to achieve your goals,
and these Five tips should help you keep to your
New Year's resolutions.
1. Make it something you really want. Don't make it
a resolution that you "should" want or what other
people tell you to want. It has to fit with your own
values.
"Put some thought into it," says Richard O'Connor,
author of "Happy at Last: The Thinking Person's
Guide to Finding Joy." And avoid knee-jerk New
Year's resolutions, he says. "I encourage people
not to make cheap resolutions, but to save it for
something meaningful."
2. Limit your list to a number you can handle. "It's
probably best to make two or three resolutions that
you intend to keep," says O'Connor. That way,
you're focusing your efforts on the goals you truly
want.
3. Be specific. "To be effective, resolutions and
goals need to be pretty specific," says O'Connor.
Jettison the amorphous "exercise more," in favor of
"I'm working out at the gym Monday, Wednesday
and Friday at 5:30 p.m."
4. Automate. Automating financial goals can
maximize your odds for success without you having
to do anything, says Keith Ernst, director of
research for the Center for Responsible Lending in
Durham, N.C.
If your goal is to save $3,000 this year, calculate
the amount out of each check, then arrange to have
it automatically deposited into your savings account
each time you get paid, says Ernst.
5. Make a plan. Rather than stating one daunting
goal, create a series of smaller steps to reach it.
"Have an action plan," O'Connor says. "Figure out
exactly what you want to do."
If you need immediate rewards, here's a
suggestion. "Ask yourself: What are the short-term
goodies?" says Susan Wilson, co-author of "Goal
Setting: How to Create an Action Plan and Achieve
Your Goals."
For example, if you want to exercise regularly and
love spending time with your friends, getting the
group together to walk regularly could give you a
short-term payoff and help you meet the long-term goals.