Well, at least I know I can get this one accomplished
90% of New Year's Resolutions will fail. You may have heard that before, but why is it? Let's take Sally's 2014 as a totally made up example.
Sally tried really hard for a few days and did really good for the first few days. Workouts went good, that broccoli and chicken breast weren't that bad, didn't have one sip of alcohol or soda, etc...
Fast forward to now and life has set in. The hectic schedule is back, stress is back in full force, and everything has gone out the window. Workouts make you sore and cranky, you wish broccoli and chicken had a face so you could punch it, you are mixing alcohol with soda now, etc...
The main thing that happens though, is that the big picture has overwhelmed Sally. "I can't continue to workout 4 days a week and eat right for the rest of my life! I'm not Richard Simmons!!!"
The Legend
I was reading a book Lone Survivor that offers some good advice you can tie into this. The book is about a Navy SEAL who is the only one from his team to survive a mission gone bad in Afghanistan.
There is a part where it talks about the insane amount of mental and physical training you have to go through to become a Navy SEAL. There is some advice in there that will help you tremendously in your long term approach to sticking with your resolutions.
During part of the training a man named Joe Maguire, who is a highly respected SEAL legend came in to give the prospective SEALs advice on how to make it through this enormous task ahead of them. Here is part of his speech:
"Whenever you're hurting bad, just hang in there. Finish the day."
And another part:
"Don't let your thoughts run away with you, don't start planning to bail out because you're worried about the future and how much you can take. Don't look ahead to the pain."
That's great advice for whatever your goals are.
Trying to lose weight? Don't think about the 50 you have to get rid of, it's the first pound you worry about first.
Want to run a 5K for the first time? Don't think about the 3.1 miles you have to cover, just worry about the next step your foot is taking.
Trying to quit smoking? Get through the next 5 minuted without a cigarette.
Signed up for a 4 week boot camp and you can't imagine getting through the whole thing? Get through the next 10 seconds of the exercise you are doing right now.
Break that huge goal down into what you are doing that second and take care of it in the moment. You can't do anything about the future until you get there anyway. It will just intimidate you when you think of how much pain (mental and physical) you will have to go through to get there.