Get your life on the right track in year ahead

January's resolutions can be hard to stick to, but where there's a will to succeed there's a way to achieve them

ANOTHER year and another string of New Year resolutions. What will it be this time around? Stop smoking, lose weight or get fit?

Change jobs perhaps? Maybe change your relationship – or change your whole life?

While most of us spend the first few weeks of January plotting our new and perfect life, hardly any of us will actually have the staying power to see those resolutions through to next year.

According to a study of 700 people by Professor Richard Wiseman of the University of Hertfordshire, only 22 per cent were able to stick to their resolutions and reach their goals.

While the rest fell back into bad habits, he noted that the others succeeded by simply breaking their goals in small, manageable chunks and rewarding themselves each time they achieved progress.

Tracking their achievements – and getting friends and family on board – helped them get what they wanted.

It sounds simple enough. Yet even armed with that knowledge, most of us will still spend February trying to remember what on earth this year's resolution was supposed to be.

But if you are determined to make 2010 the year you do succeed, it could pay to listen to what Edinburgh experts have to say. As part of our New Year, New You series, SANDRA DICK speaks to the people whose job is to make you succeed.

STICK TO THAT RESOLUTION

Gillian Brown is a former human resources executive and management consultant who runs Edinburgh-based New-U Coaching.

She says: "We all have different drivers, ambitions and motivations. However, for those who want to purely focus on improving their wellbeing and happiness or their overall physical health and fitness, it is important you are clear about what you want your life to look and feel like during 2010 and beyond.

"Most of us start January with a long list of resolutions which by the end of the month have been forgotten about or hidden away hoping to never appear again.

"Usually by March we feel like failures, our energy is low and we have lost our drive to make any changes. So we just go back to our old ways, old habits and old ways of thinking.

"We run right back to the warmth of our comfort zones, hoping our friends, family or colleagues forget about our grandiose ideas and ideals of getting fit, losing that extra stone, stopping smoking, paying off those credit cards, changing job or sorting out our lives for good.

"We have to let go of all our old fears, all our old habits and all our old expectations and perceptions of ourselves and embrace the new year."

She says it's important not to set unrealistic targets but do give yourself a goal that will stretch you.

"This goal needs to be enough to keep you motivated and inspired about what you are setting out to achieve. Word it as though it has already happened – your goal should be in the present tense. This has an immediate positive effect on you as a person, the power of intention will change your subconscious and increase your motivation."

She next advises planning for success by setting yourself a number of milestones to aim for.

"Review each milestone and make sure they are going to work for you to ensure you are on target for achieving that goal. Then set at least three actions you need to take to reach each milestone, starting with the first."

Don't expect immediate success, she adds: "Change is not going to happen overnight, therefore it is essential that you do not rush or put too much pressure on yourself.

"The key is sustained change by taking small steps to making big changes.

"Always remember, a journey of a thousand miles starts with small steps. Apply this to your life and you will be amazed at what you can achieve by taking small. manageable steps."

Gillian Brown is coaching director at www.new-u-now.co.uk, 08456 43 43 71

Knocking all areas of your life into top shape for 2010

CAREER

Furthering your career might be the last thing on your mind if you don't even have a job thanks to the recession.

According to Pauline McLeod (inset below) of Edinburgh's Tres Bon Coaching and The VERY Good Interview School, there is some hope for the new year.

"In 2010, the job market will start to make a recovery and employee retention will become the big focus," she predicts.

"As an employee, you'll want to start focusing your attention on career paths within your current organisation or indeed about getting that job that sets you on the correct career ladder externally.

"Be true to yourself about your current position – is it working for you? If it is, you need to start looking objectively at what you can do to enhance your knowledge and skills.

"January will normally be the start of objective setting with your maangers, so prepare for this in advance.

"Give some thought as to what you want to achieve this year, whether it's more training, experience in different areas or access to a part of the business you're not as familiar with or even working on a project that will challenge you."

She suggests successful employees in a competitive job market will be the ones who are prepared to work hard for themselves. "What can you do to improve your learning, look at classes outside of work, read new books on areas of business that interest you.

"Find a mentor or get a career coach to keep yourself moving forwards.

"Keep up to date with everything that goes on in the industry that you work in.

"Most importantly, be willing to adapt and learn new skills, having someone who is flexible on a team makes your contribution invaluable during difficult times."

RELATIONSHIPS

Stuck in a dead-end relationship and can't face another minute, never mind year, with your other half.

Pauline says there's nothing like economic hard times to put the pressure on our love life.

"Relationships are going to be tested. The effects of the credit crunch mean this will be the time when relationships will either be able to stand the test of time or falter.

"In order to make your relationship recession-proof, you might want to start by thinking about what your relationship is based on. If you have been used to going out lots and not worrying too much about the finances, then this may become a point of contention.

"Talk openly about the changes you are both facing and how best it can be done together.

"Try reconnecting with each other, set aside time that is only for the two of you and enjoy each other's company. Take walks around your city together, watch movies, discuss topics that interest you both, cook together – doing these types of things are virtually cost-free but will allow your bond to grow.

"It is true that when a couple go through a difficult time together and get out the other side, they grow closer. Knowing that you can cope through the rough times as well as the happy times is the foundation for a rock-solid relationship.

"If cracks are showing in your relationship, talk about them and try to understand what you can do together to overcome them.

"The most difficult but honest decision may be to go your separate ways.

"Whatever way your relationship goes, be sure to have confidence in yourself and that you will get through these times and move into a happier place.

Tres Bon Coaching, www.tresboncoaching.com and The VERY Good Interview School, www.theverygood interviewschool.com, 07784 550278

EXERCISE

Lugging your unfit frame down the gym might be the last thing you feel like doing – and if you don't do it right, you risk wasting your time.

According to personal trainer Mike Heatlie (inset below) – whose clients include No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani – many of us simply don't know how to exercise properly. "If you are joining a gym for the first time and go by yourself, it's a bit like taking your car to a garage and then opening up the bonnet and attempting the repairs yourself.

"It's really important to exercise correctly. Women often go for too much cardio work on the treadmill and the cross trainer, thinking they are burning fat. That is one of the biggest myths – the body needs stress to build lean muscle tissue which then increases the metabolic rate.

"Do weight training, one set after another, to build lean muscle and when you leave the gym your metabolic rate will be higher for the rest of the day.

"You have to be committed to make changes in your life – if you've not exercised before Christmas, then you need to figure out how you can make the commitment .

"You have to be prepared to be in it for the long haul, it doesn't happen overnight."

Heading to the gym to lose weight could be a case of putting the cart before the horse, he adds. "If you want to lose weight, focus on food rather than exercise – weight loss is 75 per cent down to what you eat and drink as opposed to exercise. "If you put on 10 or 15lb over Christmas, you join a gym but don't change your eating, then there's a fair chance you'll still be 10 or 15lbs heavier weeks later.

"It's food and fluid that has got people fat in the first place, so look at food and fluid first."

DIET

Trousers suddenly shrunk since Christmas? Or could it be that you might have gained just a little bit extra thanks to all those festive treats?

Mike says , simply stocking up with the latest "healthy eating" supermarket range might not be the complete solution.

"Don't bother buying lots of 'diet' foods – I know people with their fridge stocked with chocolate desserts and they say they must be ok because they're labelled low fat or diet. That's ridiculous," he insists.

"People eat far too much carbohydrate – choose four or five days a week when you focus hard and avoid carbs like bread, pasta, potatoes and rice.

"We live in a high carb society. It's not fat that makes us fatter, it's cheap and accessible carbohydrates.

"If you have cereal at breakfast, baked potato at lunch and pasta for dinner, then you're overdoing it. The liver can only store so much carbohydrate – that's why people are getting fat."

His key tip is to keep a food diary, and watch out for carbs.

"It's also about not going in with too high expectations and accepting that there will be times when you don't do as well.

"Remember that if you do something to help yourself lose weight every day, you will start to see results."

Mike Heatlie: www.mikeheatliepersonal training.com, 0131-661-8357