New Year’s resolutions are a good way to start the year afresh to maybe better you or help others and all resolutions are made with good intentions and to benefit either themselves or other people. The problem is that a lot of resolutions become short lived and a lot of motivation is required to ensure that they are kept going.

Typical resolutions include:

• Joining the gym or starting some sort of exercise program (this is very easy to fall into as people have those extra pounds from Christmas)
• Quit Smoking
• Saving money
• Spending more time with family and friends
• Something as simple as enjoy life more
• Quite drinking
• Get out of debt
• Help other
• Get organised

We are now in mid January and those of you with resolutions needs to look into ways of keeping these alive and following through with them.

With working hours increasing in the UK and more and more pressure from so many different aspects of our lives it is becoming increasingly difficult to juggle family, social and work commitments. So how do you cope with these demands in a sensible way and how do you cope to ensure you keep your sanity and other happy.

Being organised in this hectic world is vital to ensure you keep to your personal commitments and non personal commitments. Investing in a diary or organiser of some sort can be the best start to organising your life. Keep it up to date with events dates, times, meeting and so much more.

Caffeine the devil that we all know too well. Keeps you awake but can play havoc on your sleeping patterns and surprisingly a lot more. Ultimately caffeine is a drug and as with smoking is very easy to become addicted too. Coffee is the worst for this whereas tea has smaller amounts of caffeine making it safer to drink. If you are looking to cut down your caffeine intake as with anything you should do this gradually. The normal advice is to cut down gradually over a course of 2 to 3 weeks.

Hopefully the following side effects will encourage you to consider cutting down your caffeine intake:

• Diarrhoea
• copious urination
• facial flushing

It’s now mid January 2010 and like me and 100s of other people in the country you may well have made a new year’s resolution to stop smoking. At this point things start getting serious as cravings are kicking in even harder and making your new resolution even more difficult. Now is the time to start exploring other ways to help you keep this fight going otherwise you may fall prey to the stick of death and break your resolution.

Let’s take a look at the other options at hand but hopefully you opted for the gradual process of quitting and are slowly cutting down on your cigarette allowance. If you went cold turkey you may be feeling the burn a lot more. Here are some things to try:

• Set a target date
• Speak to your GP about other options out there
• Get a quitting partner, two is always better than one
• Ask your family and friends for support
• Start exercising this will keep you busy, help your relax and overall good for you
• Work out what triggers your craving and deal with them head on
• Keep a positive mind

So New Year is fast approaching and another year has passed you by.  I have spent a lot of this year re-evaluating and thinking of ways in which I can change different aspects of my life.

I really could do with being more efficient with my money, especially as i would like to start saving for a deposit on a house.  Hopefully a change in attitude towards spending will help get me in a position where I can start putting aside money on a regular basis.  But is this easier said than done, or is it actually achievable ??

I guess it is all a question of exactly how much i want to achieve my aim of saving a deposit up.  Maybe a re-visit to this blog at New Year 2010 will answer it.

Do you ever sit at work and think ‘i could do so much better’ and then continue with your work, go home and keep working in the same job, day after day ??

Next time it happens, why not take that as a piece of motivation to help drive yourself on by sitting down and assessing your options.  Maybe you really want to leave but cannot see a clear way out, which would suggest you should spend time thinking about possible options.  The other option is you know what you would really like to do, but the current job is a safe option and maybe the motivation just isn’t there.

I would say though, and talking from experience, you will become stale in a job that doesnt motivate you and it will ultimately effect your performance.

carpe diem and all that !!!

Are you the sort of person that needs to plan short, medium and long term goals ??

Or would you describe yourself as a more ‘reactive’ person who will take it as it comes and aim to get everything done, with little control of direction of how things turn out.

Most coaches, teachers or managers will agree that goal-setting is an important part of a planning process.  It may be that your work day is governed from start to finish by endless job lists or outlook calendars and you have the ability to stick to a rigid structure.  Alternatively, you may be able to set yourself certain goals, but change throughout the day, week or year to allow you to reach the goal.

I think the main thing to realise is that no two people are the same and more importantly we cannot say what works for one person will work for another.  Different goal setting strategies will work for different people in different ways.

We have all been there, as we are all humans, and it is a trait that we will make errors and mistakes.  But I guess the most important part of any mistake is how we use the experience to learn and grow as a person.

Is it the feeling of failure or embarrassment that spurs you on next time you attempt the same or similar task that ensures you don’t make the mistake again ??

Maybe a mistake isn’t always obvious and that leads to you having to be corrected by someone.  This could be quite common in the workplace or the sporting arena, and its quite important how you take criticism.  Reacting in a positive manner and the ability to accept you have made an error, will only help aid the learning process.

I will leave you to ponder what the biggest mistake you have made and how you recovered from it ??

Why do we feel the need to self improve, is it for extrinsic or intrinsic value ??

Do you as a person look to improve performance within a skill-set for the internal ‘buzz’ feeling of self-worth or is it more to do with external factors and the need to impress.  I think it says a lot about you as a person and what motivates you to succeed.  It will also determine the sort of path you take in life and how you approach.

For me I am very much driven by extrinsic values, I want to succeed not just for me, but i want to achieve (normally as part of a team) for others as well.  By improving my performance and upping my game then I get both of these.

So what motivates you ??

Many people think of self improvement in terms of dieting, going to the gym and just being active in the most general way to keep inline with what everyone else is doing.

A great way to get fit and get a brilliant buzz at the same time is to go skiing, you can stay on-piste if you like, or if you really want to have a good time and workout then I personally would (and do) go off-piste, where you can completely make your own trails and cut through the powder like a machete on butter.   The Alps are where I would go without question.