How To Keep New Year's Resolutions

Why does everyone seem to have a record of failures when it comes to sticking to New Year's resolutions? It is the simple reason that while most of us are good in theory, we flounder in practice! We recognize that the difficulty in getting rid of a bad habit is directly proportional to our attachment to it and the length of the time we've been doing it.

We normally make a resolution to get rid of some of our bad habits - like smoking, drinking, overeating, workaholism, procrastination, etc. To become successful in keeping our New Year's resolutions, we need a few essential ingredients:

1. Have a strong desire to get rid of your weakness. The desire to end our bad habits like smoking, drinking, obesity, etc. comes to us only over a period of time, after we start facing the consequences in the form of a breakdown in health, mounting medical expenses, strain in the relationships with beloved ones, etc. As long as we are not troubled much by the consequences of our bad habits (which is normally the case when we are quite young and daring), we do not get a desire to drop them that is strong enough to motivate us. We may perhaps acknowledge our problems, but not make the necessary course correction.
2. Engage in ‘talking within yourself' to cajole your mind to accept the need. Once our desire becomes strong enough, then we have to start convincing ourselves - "Come on; you have enjoyed these bad habits long enough. You are getting older, you have to grow mature enough to leave behind the ‘temporarily pleasant' to move on to ‘permanently good." Habits die hard; this convincing takes time.
3. Practice trial and error before making a firm resolution. During the period of ‘convincing ourselves,' without really making any official resolution, we can try to adopt a flexible and anytime-reversible experiment - like cutting down the number of cigarettes per day, avoiding boozing parties with friends once in a while, avoiding junk food for a couple of days, etc. These exercises will gradually give us an inner strength and also a level of confidence that we can really try and take a plunge.
4. Make the resoulution and also seek help from a confidant. Now comes the stage of making the actual resolution. At this stage, we must take someone whom we love or someone who loves us into confidence. Reveal to him your plan of making the resolution and seek help. "In case I get a temptation to fall back, I want you to warn me. I want you to encourage me in my effort; you can even scold me, and I promise you, I will not take offense."
5. If you are a believer, pray to God for help. Confide in him and pray to him sincerely: "My Lord, I want to get rid of this weakness, but I am afraid I do not have sufficient inner strength to remain resolute. Please watch over me and give me the strength to stand up against my temptations and succeed in my effort." Believers will vouch to you that such a prayer gives you tremendous strength to help you to stick to your resolution.

Once you have taken the plunge, no doubt your past tendencies will pull you back. Deep-rooted tendencies will trouble you with depression, mental weakness, self-pity, and so on. If you have followed the preparatory steps correctly, you will be able to remain firm. Assuming that you are a believer of God, continue with your prayer. Whenever you get tempted to fall back to your old habits, step aside and pray. Ask for inner strength. The more earnest your faith and prayer are, the better will be the divine help that descends on you.