How to Succeed with Your Goals or Resolutions in 2010

How many times have you set goals or made a New Year's Resolution and succeeded?  Has long has your success lasted? 

If you are like most people you've probably had mixed success. Sometimes you are able to set a goal and achieve it and you have a permanent change. Sometimes you achieve a goal only to eventually end up back where you started. And sometimes you just never get there.  Does this sound familiar? 

Do you know enables you to succeed sometimes and not others? It's not all about will power, knowledge, skill, money.  There is something more fundamental at play and with a little work that you can do on your own. You can also work with a personal success coach and achieve greater results more quickly.

So, what's the secret? It is understanding what your personal values are. Not what you would like your values to be, but what your values actually are.  What are your values? They are the basis for every decision you make - why you get up and go to work, how you dress, what and how often you eat, whether you exercise, and even where you go on vacation. To discover you values you have to be willing to dig deep, which is where having a coach can help you but you can do it on your own.

Here's a quick example. Even if this example doesn't apply directly to you, think about some area of your life where you might have a similar choice. You stop at your favorite fast good restaurant. You could order a salad or triple cheese burger deluxe with special sauce. You know the salad without the dressing is the healthier choice, bound to help you live longer.  Yet you choose the burger. Sure it's delicious and you know it's not go for you.  So why did you choose it?  I will tell you it's not just because it tastes better to you. That's what we tell ourselves to fool ourselves.  There is something more fundamental at play - one of your personal values.

Whether you are trying to lose weight (or better yet "achieve and maintain your ideal weight"), reduce your debt, go back to school, change your job, move on to a new relationship or something else understanding you values, and in particular your top 5 values, will help you to succeed. If you stop fighting yourself all the other work you need to do to succeed will be that much easier.