My previous post was about stating your resolutions as SMART goals. This next step is a simple mental exercise that will hopefully help you to place your goals higher on your priority list and keep you on the path to success.

Everything we do or avoid doing has some significance and its level of significance determines how, when and why it's done or not done. Take a look at the goals (resolutions) you created. Now starting with the most important goal ask yourself why that goal is important to you.

For most goals and most people it might be a very personal reason. Its importance may be a private matter to you that others may not understand, like entering and completing your first half marathon. The important thing is that you are aware why it's important to you.
Other goals might be more obvious like a matter of life or death- lowering blood pressure levels, reducing large amounts of excess body fat to prevent or reverse life threatening conditions.

Now, whatever your answer is for the first question, you need to ask yourself why that reason is important. Is it simply a matter of not letting yourself down or not letting others down? Is it a need, want or lifelong dream that you have a burning desire to fulfill? And how badly do you need or want it?

Next ask yourself "What will be the consequences of not reaching my goal?", not just the short term consequences but long term. Keep in mind that as you age, the battle against time and nature makes it more difficult to achieve certain goals. Will it affect your physical health? Will your mental well being be impacted? Will you be fine putting it off until the next new year?

For those of you that are attempting to resolve the same thing(s) as last year or prior years it might benefit you to perform this exercise on paper. That way, when you start to slack off you can refer to what you wrote down. Reading about its importance to you in your own words might provide the inspiration and motivation to get you back on track toward reaching your goals.