Life's Like That: Helping you achieve your resolutions

The holidays have been a blast, but it's time to put down the sugar cookies and get back to class. An entirely fresh semester full of lectures, assignments, readings, beer pong and flip cup awaits you; leaving little time for those New Year's resolutions. Whatever it was you vowed to change, fix, buy, lose or quit — you better get on top of it. However, the reality is a majority of New Year's resolutions are never followed through to completion. They just don't tend to stick. People try and then…that's it. Well Fanshawe, I'm not going to let that happen to us, I'm going to help you guys out with some handy tips, so when your friends say, “I quit” you can say, “Mines still stickin'.” These are my top 10 tips I hope you enjoy:

1. Schedule your goal inside your high energy times: You need to sit down and figure out what time of the day you are most motivated to work on your resolution. For example if you're vowing to shed those extra pounds, make sure you do that jog or hit that gym, when you actually have energy so your not slacking and wasting your time.

2. Make them S.M.A.R.T: The S is for specific: “I will run 25 min's a day, M is for measurable: “I will improve my running by five minutes a day.” The A is for achievable: “I will only party twice during the school week,” don't say “I will not party at all during the school week.” The R is for realistic. Give yourself a reasonable amount of time to achieve your goal: “I will quit smoking by the end of the month,” not “I will quit smoking by next week.” The T is for timely. Give yourself a timeline you can stick to, and track your progress towards your goal.

3. Tell other people about your Resolution: The more people who know what you're trying to do the more accountability you have and support.

4. Make sure you give yourself a pat on the back: If you know that you are trying your best, and things are progressing treat yourself. Remember you cannot really and truly be good to others if you can't be good to yourself.

5. Develop coping strategies to deal with any problems that may pop up: The world's not perfect. Things go wrong, and you've should try and plan ahead a little bit so that if and when it does, you're prepared to deal and move on.

6. If you get off track don't quit, make readjustments to “The Plan” and keep on truckin': Things happen and mistakes are made. Pick yourself up and keep going. Maybe you need to make some small changes, but whatever you do don't bail and let yourself down like that.

7. Don't make too many changes: The New Year is for resolutions not an entirely new life. If you try to make too many changes too fast, I guarantee you're going to find yourself failing.

8. Do it FOR YOU not other people: If you're changing or “fixing” something for another person eventually resentments will rise. This could open up a can of worms that you and that person were not anticipating.

9. Don't say you'll do something if deep down you know it's not true: If you do this you're just another cliché and a time waster that drags the rest of us down and makes it appear that New Year's resolutions don't work out.

10. When you make your plan write it down: Put it on your whiteboard, in your planner, even on your Facebook if you'd like. When it's written down and in your face it becomes real and concrete.

Well Fanshawe, I hope my ideas help you out, good luck my friends.

Editorial opinions or comments expressed in this online edition of Interrobang newspaper reflect the views of the writer and are not those of the Interrobang or the Fanshawe Student Union. The Interrobang is published weekly by the Fanshawe Student Union at 1001 Fanshawe College Blvd., P.O. Box 7005, London, Ontario, N5Y 5R6 and distributed through the Fanshawe College community. Letters to the editor are welcome. All letters are subject to editing and should be emailed. All letters must be accompanied by contact information. Letters can also be submitted online by clicking here.