You made your resolutions, you were motivated, and you had that end goal in sight. But whoa, where did those good intentions go? Research shows most people who make resolutions end up abandoning them within six months.  Did you fall off track already?  

Here are three simple brain friendly tips for keeping your New Year’s Resolutions:

Keep your mental picture of the results you want front and center in your mind.  Understand that your subconscious is only interested in making sure that you’re right.  Lou Tice would say we move in the direction of our dominant thoughts. So how do we get there? 

First, write them down.  A 2015 Dominican university of California study of 149 adult showed that 61% of the people who wrote down what they wanted to accomplish over the next four weeks were successful.  When you write your resolutions be sure to write the goal as though it’s already happened. Write it in the first person, positive terms including emotion. For example: I feel great working out 3 times a week.

Second, when you’re reading them it is important to mentally picture what it’s like when you reach that goal and feel what that feels like.  The brain responds to emotion, strong emotion sears a pathway in the brain.  if you can feel it you can do it. For example one of your resolutions is to exercise regularly.  What does that feel like? When you finish a good workout and pump your hands up and say YES, can you feel it?  When you read this resolution you need to have that feeling of YES as you envision doing this. 

Third, read them at least twice a day. The more you read and feel them the stronger that picture is in your brain. 

Once your subconscious catches on that this is the reality you have in your mind it will aid you in finding ways to make those pictures real.