When it comes to New Year’s resolutions, you can either set yourself up for success or failure. The key is to make sure that your resolutions have a number of specific qualities that can infinitely increase your likelihood of keeping them when spring and summer roll around.

Maintaining resolutions begins with settling the resolutions themselves. The best way to do this is to be SMART. By making SMART resolutions, you can ensure that 2019 is one of the most productive, both personally and professionally.

Specific:

Being vague is the surest way to fail at your New Year’s resolutions. You might want to be more focused on your job. But what does that really mean? When you’re specific, it’s easy to gauge if you are actually achieving your goals or whether more effort needs to be made.

Measurable:

Ask someone about their New Year’s resolutions, and it won’t be long before you hear the answer “losing weight”. But if your resolution doesn’t have the ability to be measured, it will be incredibly difficult to track your success over time.

Achievable:

In order to be achievable, your resolution needs to be something that you can actually take real and meaningful steps toward. Create resolutions that you know can be achieved.

Realistic:

When considering your resolutions, take time and care to really think about what is possible, given the circumstances. Also, be realistic in how long it will take you to accomplish the goal tied to the resolution.

Time-Bound:

Last, but not least, your resolutions should have some sort of time parameter associated with them. Think of it like this — would you sign up for a race if a finish line was not put into place?

Making resolutions is only part of the equation. Sticking to them is another process. Here are five strategies to keep your resolutions.

#1: Prioritize Your Goals – When you try to accomplish too much, you can end up accomplishing nothing at all.

#2: Tell Friends and Colleagues – Don’t try to accomplish something big on your own! By telling others, you help to keep yourself accountable — and, as they say, there is strength in numbers.

#3: Keep a Journal – Just like telling your friends and colleagues about your resolutions helps keep you accountable to others, keeping a journal helps keep you accountable to yourself.

#4: Be Realistic – Sure, all of us want to get into incredible shape, become employee of the month, and make real meaningful steps in our relationships — just remember that change takes time.

#5: Be Gentle with Yourself – If you slip up on your diet over a weekend with friends or lose your temper at work during a moment of weakness, don’t be too hard on yourself. These things happen, and the best thing you can do is keep trying — after all, you’re only human!

Many people see the new year as a clean slate; a time to evaluate and consider ways to improve upon yourself. After you come up with clear and well-defined goals, make sure that you set yourself up for success along the way. By keeping in mind the tips and tricks above, you’ll be well on your way to a better version of yourself.