They may be slightly corny, but New Year’s resolutions are a great way to kick start your year.  The party’s over and most of us are suffering from a Christmas hangover of one sort or another. Despite your best intentions you have probably had one too many mince pies this Christmas, and to be fair – if you can’t indulge yourself at Christmas, when else can you? The problem is there is always an excuse to indulge. If it isn’t Christmas, it’s your summer holidays or it’s a piece of wedding or birthday cake; and there always seems to be one of those at the office.

This is why New Year’s resolutions are an ideal opportunity to better ourselves and make some positive changes.  The great thing is that the most popular resolutions like getting fit, stopping smoking and improving your diet are all great ways to improve the health of your skin which is why we’re giving you a couple of tips to help you with your New Year’s Resolutions:

Give yourself a goal

To keep yourself on track with your resolution, setting a goal that really resonates with you is a good idea. The key is to find a goal that is meaningful to you. Just setting yourself the target of losing 10lbs isn’t as powerful as deciding that you’re going to fit into those favourite old jeans for that summer festival. It could be that you want to do a 10K race or finish a triathlon. Your goal might be to fit into that dress for your friend’s wedding. It could be that you want to perform a salsa dance routine or get some close up photographs done in a professional photo studio once you’ve got rid of all your skin blemishes. The key is to ensure it excites you and resonates strongly.

There’s plenty of evidence and articles about the power of visualising your goals and how this helps you achieve them by activating your creative subconscious and reprogramming your brain. Focusing in this way on a regular basis helps you make subtle changes to your day-to-day decisions, which means you’re more likely to achieve it.  Place photographic reminders of your goal in strategic positions to help you keep focused.

Setting small goals along the way is a great idea too. If you’re hoping to make a huge change as a result of your resolution be sure to celebrate key milestones during your transformation. As with your main goal be sure to make sure your milestone goals mean something to you and excite you.

If you measure it you can manage it

Measure your progress. There are some fantastic tools around to measure a whole host of things. You now can even measure your antioxidant levels. Nu skin has developed a scanner that can measure your antioxidant levels in just 30 seconds by firing a laser into your hand. You don’t necessarily need anything as exotic as laser though. It could be that you simply weigh yourself if you want to lose weight or count how many hours a week exercise you’ve done if improving your fitness is part of your resolution. There are some great apps for your phone that help you count your calories. Our favourite is “My Fitness Pal”. You could even take advantage of Brigstock Skin and Laser’s new VISIA machine by coming along to the clinic and having a free skin and complexion analysis if your goal is to improve your skin.  The VISIA measures a number of key characteristics that help evaluate your skin’s health, like sun damage, wrinkles, pore size, spots, skin tone and bacteria. The key is to measure your results and record them so you can plot your progress. All major corporations throughout the world use measurements and metrics to help ensure they reach their objectives. This is why you must measure your progress on a regular basis if you are serious about keeping your resolution and reaching your goal.

Plan your schedule

Planning your schedule is really important. If you’re looking to make a change and improve some aspect of your life it’s going to require a bit of planning to ensure that you achieve it. All modern phones now have diaries on them that are really easy to use and can make a huge difference if you get into the habit of using them.

If your resolution involves you doing some more exercise over the coming year it is essential that you plot this activity in your diary and plan the rest of your life around this. If improving your diet is key to ensuring you achieve your goal make sure you plan and schedule to buy the appropriate ingredients so you don’t end up eating a soggy sandwich for lunch next Thursday. A weekly plan is probably all you need. Do this on a Sunday evening, looking at your work schedule over the next week and plan the health activities that you’re looking to achieve over the next week or so.

Go public

Going public about your goal or resolution is another great way of keeping yourself motivated. Getting sponsored is even better. If you’re really serious about sticking to your resolution why not go public? You’re going to do it anyway so let your friends know about it. Post your declaration on your Facebook timeline. Raise some money for your favourite charity and make your goal about more than just about you and the benefits you’ll enjoy by achieving it.

Keep learning

We live in an amazing time where the sum of all human knowledge is little more than a mouse click or screen swipe away. This new information age isn’t necessarily good news for encyclopaedia salesmen, but it does mean we have access to everything we need to know to achieve our goals and stick to our resolutions. If you’re struggling to figure out how to do something you’ve never done before; and even if you have done it before, don’t be afraid to try to learn some more about it. Read a book, watch a video or go on a course. The more tips, anecdotes and information you learn about the easier it will be.

Hopefully these ideas are helpful and you’re able to set yourself a resolution that resonates strongly with you and is enormously fun to achieve. Do stick with it though, because underpinning the fun and benefits you get from your New Year’s resolution are some pretty serious reasons to make some improvements to your health and general wellbeing. Stopping smoking, losing some weight, eating better or doing some exercise are all great for your skin’s health, but ultimately are about making sure you’re around a bit longer and are healthier for those that love you most and also yourself. Maybe that’s a better goal to focus on when you’re struggling to resist that extra piece of birthday cake than visualising putting on that favourite pair of old jeans.