Resolutions get real

Set a deadline

You may think you can accomplish your goal any time you want, but if you're like most people, you're better off with a deadline. In fact, the absence of a deadline may be the only thing standing between you and success. Unless you set a date, you'll probably come up with a "better time" to turn over a new leaf. Go ahead – schedule in your lifestyle changes. After all, a schedule works at the office, doesn't it? So use the business example and get it done.

Kathryn Saliani, Tracy's mother-in-law, knows what it's like to try to quit smoking without a firm deadline. "You decide you're going to quit -- not necessarily that day, but some time that year," she says. "You think about quitting when they advertise February as heart month. You dread Weedless Wednesday that month because you know you should attempt it. Sometimes you do try and it lasts for two or three days. Then you reward yourself with a cigarette."

Kathryn did manage to quit smoking 19 years ago. She picked a target date that wasn't a holiday, birthday, anniversary or other special event. She stresses that your target date should only be important because it's a target date. Otherwise, a well-intentioned friend or relative might provide unnecessary temptation. Who wants to swear off desserts, only to be presented with a cake on your birthday?

Break your resolution into stages

Get out your calendar and mark dates to take those baby steps toward your final resolution. Circle them in red, post the calendar where you'll see it and follow the steps to the day. For example, if your aim is to eat a healthy diet, cut the cream and sugar from your coffee starting Jan. 15. Sometime in February, stop using butter. Celebrate spring by adding a selection of legumes to your pantry. Follow the trend throughout the year and by December you'll have improved your eating habits twelvefold. Suddenly it's not such a big job now, is it?

Evelyn Annis found this strategy eminently rewarding. When she decided to shape up, she wasn't exactly in minute-mile form -- far from it. She was a first-class couch potato but she was determined to change more than just the channel. Early last year she got out her daybook and started marking dates. Her first goal was to walk every day during lunch starting in mid-January -- nothing spectacular, just around the block twice. A month later she started hitting the pavement every day for an hour. "As my physical activity increased in stages over the next several months, so did my stamina," she says. "By the end of August, I had managed to include an hour and a half of exercise in my daily routine without really noticing."