Resolutions often fail for many reasons. The main reason is not maintaining the resolution. Resolutions are maintained through daily actions which reinforce progress towards the targeted goal. These daily activities need to be realistic and achievable, while also moving towards the end goal with the same principles. One must, first, understand what it will take to achieve their goal through research, assistance, coaching, whatever, but find a trusted resource based upon experience achieving similar goals.
For instance, let's say you wanted to loose 20lbs this New Year. First you must find out what it takes to achieve this goals. A personal trainer and nutritionists may be needed to better understand what it will take and how to progress towards the end goal without doing too much too soon and burning out, or not elevating enough to achieve the goal. It is a balance of what is doable, while pushing a little bit more regularly, until the routine enables maintenance of the goal. Often, people loose weight, stop doing whatever achieved their weight loss goal and gain the weight back. Change over time requires daily commitment to routines that enable the change to continue to exist.
If weight loss is your goal the number one concept is to consume less calories than you burn. Additionally, the calories you choose for fuel can dictate what types of body weight are gained or loss. Increasing activity is another way to burn more calories than before as long as the caloric intake doesn't increase as well.
Most people who resolve to loose weight this year join a gym and go all out on cardio equipment. This tends to burn people out as they are working too hard too soon to maintain progress. Furthermore, working harder is not necessarily working smarter. If you were wanting to loose fat, fat metabolizes at a particular heart rate. The max human heart rate is 220 beats per minute. A general rule of thumb is to subtract your age from 220 and multiple the remainder by .60 or 60%. My target heart rate is 220-34=186 x 0.6 = about 111 beats per minute. This is my ideal heart rate for burning fat. The more time I spent in this heart rate range the more fat I burn. This equation is far from strenuous activity. You do not have to run to loose weight. Your target heart rate for fat burning can be achieved by a brisk walk. If you exercise at heart rates above this range, you are working towards other gains, like cardiovascular fitness, where you will be able to increase the rate over time of your exercising. This is very good, too, but it does not target fat loss if that is your goal.
If you cannot afford a personal trainer and nutritionists, or want to try are your own, I suggest starting with 20 minutes at your target heart rate three times a week. After the first week, you can go 25 minutes three times a week, building in another 5 minutes each week until you achieve 45-60 minutes within your target heart rate. At his point, if you want to continue progress, add 4 days a week until you can do 5 days a week 45-60 minutes at target heart rate. By this time, if you have not increased your eating habits too much, and are making better choices in what you do eat, you will have reached your goal of loosing 20 lbs. after the first few months.
Then, the challenge becomes, how do I stay resolute and motivated to do more over time? Well, results are a number one motivator. However, you must be patient. Initially, your body main need to get used to the exercise. Muscles may be tight or sore. Increase your intake of water, and decrease alcohol and caffeinated beverages, and sugar. These actions will help the body recover and assist in weight loss as well.
When you increase you activity your body may hunger more. Instead of increasing your food intake increase your water intake. Water is a good way of curbing hunger and is vitally necessary for proper functioning of the body and recovery from exercise.
If you have tried all of this and are not satisfied with your results enroll assistance. Seek personal training by someone who understands your goals and can advise on a program of exercise and nutrition to achieve your goals. Many of these basic ideas I have mentioned are guideposts to gauge whether any particular resource knows the first thing about what it takes.
Goal setting is all about defining the goal specifically, understanding the path to achieve that goal incrementally so realistic and achievable goals can be met along the way while balancing your effort and energy for the long haul to the end goal!