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6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

With New Year round the corner, its time for new resolutions and an expert on 'goal setting and will power' from the US can help you to keep them.

E.J. Masicampo, assistant professor of psychology at Wake Forest University has offered six tips for turning resolutions into reality.

6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

1. Commit to a specific plan

Committing to a specific plan to accomplish a goal not only makes it more likely to be done, but it also gets it off your mind so you can accomplish other things.

6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

2. Picture yourself carrying out your plan

When you imagine carrying out the specific plans that you set, you're more likely to carry them out with ease.

6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

3. Monitor your progress

One of the simplest things you can do to meet your standards is to keep track of how well you're doing.

If you are dieting, weigh yourself or record your caloric intake daily. Signs of failure will energize you to change.

Signs of success will encourage you to keep on going.

6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

4. Kill two birds with one stone

Goals often compete and interfere with one another, but sometimes you can combine them.

For example, is your resolution competing with your desire to socialize? Turn your resolution-related activities into social activities. This will save you from having to sacrifice one goal for another.

6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

5. Connect with someone who shares your goal

Goals are contagious. If someone close to you is pursuing a goal, you will be more likely to pursue it, too.

6 tips to actually KEEP your New Year's resolution

6. Create a routine and stick to it

Every time you engage in a behavior, you make it easier to enact again later. Do a goal-related activity at the same time and in the same place every day or week, and eventually the behavior will become habit.

Masicampo asserted that a small change in goal management could help in making a difference.

"We roll our eyes at people's resolutions because we often see them fail," he said.

"But, research shows that small changes in how people think about and manage their goals can make all the difference," he added.