Give Your New Year's Resolutions another shot

Rory Vaden is a New York Times Bestselling author/self-discipline expert. He says give your New Year’s Resolutions another shot. It's totally natural to lose steam a few weeks into a New Year's resolution. First step: renew your intention.

It's incredibly difficult to change your habits, so the first step to getting back on track is to forget the past, and renew your intention right now. You absolutely have to let yourself off the hook for what has happened the past few weeks - if you don't, you're holding on to a self-defeating mindset which will prevent you from moving ahead. Remember, you are only 30 days away from making a change that you will keep forever, so reset your mind, and start fresh!

 If you made multiple resolutions, pick one - and scrap the rest. Research shows that we suck at multitasking. If you have more than one resolution, you're more likely to fail - so pare down your list of resolutions to just one - or don't bother at all.

 Put a price tag on your failure. We are much more likely to give up when there is no consequence for doing so. My friend promised his business partner over a thousand dollars if he didn't achieve his personal resolution. Do you think he stuck to it? You bet.

Forget about results - measure your efforts. Many people throw in the towel too soon because they don't see immediate results. But results don't happen overnight, so if you're about to give up, start tracking your efforts in order to stay motivated. If your resolution is to lose 20 pounds, don't step on the scale every week - instead, measure how well you stuck to your food guidelines or exercise goals. You must be relentless about making progress on your efforts, while letting go of the demand for perfect results.