A New Years Resolutions Secret

Want to know the secret to keeping your New Year’s Resolutions?  Pretend that you’ve already acheived them!

I’m not saying that if you imagine yourself as 30 pounds lighter or $5000 richer that it will automatically happen.  However, visualizing how things will be in your life once you’ve reached your goal can be the first step to making it happen.

I think I’ve already talked about it in one way or another on this site but the idea is you imagine your ideal scenario and take notes about every little detail.  Once you know what you want to acheive then you can work backwards to figure out what specific actions to take to get there.

For example, once you have your ideal image in your head, you ask yourself what would I have needed to do to make this a reality?  Once you figure that out, you ask what the preceding action would have been, what the action before that would have been, and so on.  You keep working backwards from your imagined perfect future and keep a list of the actions, until you reach your current day status.

There you have it, a list of all the actions you need to take to reach your goal.  This can be kind of tricky with more abstract goals but it works well with concrete ones, specific financial goals are a good example.  If you set a money resolution of building up a $5000 emergency fund by the end of the year, you can list out specific steps you’ll take to spend less, earn more, and save more.  If the numbers add up to $5000 over 12 months and you follow the actions you list, then you should have your money goal saved by the end of the year.

Another New Year’s Resolution tip is to work on your goals ahead of time, before the ball drops in Times Square.  A little planning ahead can help you set awesome New Year’s Resolutions!

Ben Edwards, the founder of Money Smart Life, saved up enough to buy a Nintendo back when he was 12 years old. When he used the money to buy shares of Wal-Mart stock instead, he knew he wasn't like the other kids... His addiction to personal finance has paid off for his family and now he's helping you to afford the life that you want. Check him out on the web at Google Plus, Twitter and Facebook.

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