Happy 2012 everyone! A new year, a fresh start – and after 10 days, how are all of you doing with your resolutions? One of mine is to blog once each week, so as you can see I’m a few days late but better late than never. That’s a good message to keep in mind, whether you start a resolution on January 1 or March 12 or July 6, it doesn’t matter. Many people start on January 1 and make the mistake of quitting as soon as they falter on one of their resolutions – don’t fall into that trap. Every day is a fresh start to improve your life, whether you’re focused on organizing, losing weight, sorting out your finances or any other goals.

Five tips to keep in mind:

* No need to start all your resolutions at the same time – for most people it’s best to stagger them, gaining confidence as you adjust to each one. Try choosing one per month.

*Take one small step each day toward your goal. It may sound like a lot, but even making a phone call, researching something online, asking someone a question, checking a book out of the library – these are all steps.

*Find a friend to discuss resolutions/goals with on a weekly basis. It’s not only a matter of being accountable, but also it feels great to report back to someone supportive that you’ve taken steps -large or small- toward your goal. It will help keep your forward momentum going.

*Write it down. Somehow writing your goals and the steps you’ll take to achieve them helps make them more real. And as you take the steps, it’s fun to have someplace to check them off a list.

*Reward yourself, but be careful about the rewards. If your goal is to lose weight, don’t reward yourself with an ice cream sunday – rent a movie or let yourself sleep in instead. If your goal is to save money, don’t go buy a new sweater as a reward – you get the idea.

Hope those tips help you get started along your route to achieving great things for yourself in 2012. Let me know how you’re doing and I’ll be focused on sticking to my two January goals – one blog post per week and hitting the snooze button on my alarm clock only once per day!