Making goals isn’t something the majority of us do, we go through life from day to day and wonder why things never change.

Why is that?….basically it’s from not having a goal in your life.

I want you to picture the scene….

You’re going on a vacation and its been a while since you and the family have been anywhere nice, so you’re really excited.

Because its been a while you don’t want anything to go wrong, so what do you need?

You make a checklist of things you think are important to this vacation…passports…air planes tickets….sun cream…booking somewhere to stay…and on and on.

And as you go through your checklist you tick everything off, this way you know there’s going to be nothing left behind. And if there is something you really need you know you should go and get it so its taken off the list.

Sound like a bright idea, at least when it comes to the day you’ll know you have everything and things will run smoothly.

But this has all been for a holiday!

What about your life?

While organizing a vacation can be an important thing to do its nothing compared to organizing our lives. How many of us travel through from January 1st to December 31th with a real idea of where we’re going.

We might have certain things that happen in that year like holidays, birthdays, wedding etc but other than that we don’t plan for things we really want to happen in our lives.

Because this is a weight loss blog I’m going to be talking about how to make a weight loss goal. If you’re serious that this is the year then here’s how to make a one that can propel you on to the slimmer you….

1 – Grab a pen and paper. If you’re going to skip this bit don’t bother reading any further you’re not serious about making a commitment to yourself. I’m a big believer in writing it helps to make you think about what you’re doing rather than just spouting a few words and moving on through the exercise.

2 – Make a list of 5 things that have happened in your life that you’re proud of. These things may have happened this year or years gone by it doesn’t matter, pick 5. Why this gives you a good starting place both to get the thinking going in your brain, and also to prove to yourself that no matter even if you have a weight problem you’re not a total failure.

3 – Write down how much weight you’d like to lose this year (be realistic now you can’t expect to lose 40 pounds in 3 weeks) pick a figure thats both acheivable and also a little out of your reach.

4 – Now I want you to think, why do you want to lose weight? It’s probably going to be different for everyone so I can’t give you an answer. This is one of the most important steps, if you have a big enough why you can do anything, mothers have been known to lift cars off their children because they had a big enough reason “why.” Find the strongest reason that losing weight would do for you, it make take some time so think a little on this but if you find it it can carry you through the tough days.

5 – What kind of person do you need to become this year to achieve this goal? If you think about it this way if you continue to be the same as you are, you’re going to achieve the same results at the end of 2010.

• Does it mean you need to get out of your comfort zone and go to a gym, even if you find other people staring at you?
• Does it mean getting up earlier in your day to exercise?
• Does it mean learning to cook good natural food rather than living on convenience foods full of fat and other nasties?
• Trying news foods that are good for you?

What kind of person do you need to become to get there? If you’re not sure ask, ask other people who’ve lost weight and kept it off. If you can’t find anyone near you, then read books, blogs and weight loss magazines for things you need to be doing.

6 – You now should have a list of 4 things

1. 5 Things that you’re proud of achieving.
2. How much weight you want to lose
3. “WHY” you want to lose weight
4. What kind of person do you need to become.

Now keep this list where you can can refer to it again and again (even better have it on the first page of your new weight loss diary), this is your map/checklist of where you want to be headed this year.

7-  As the year goes by, every week look over your list and ask yourself was “I faithful to what I wrote here?” Did I do all this week that I could to bring me closer to my goal?…because one things for sure if its not bringing you closer it’s taking you further away from it.

And who wants to be back at “Square 1″ at the start of 2011?

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You’ve probably heard the saying “It’s better to give than to receive” and with it being the holiday season you’ve being doing a lot of both (or I hope you have!).

What’s this got to do with losing weight and escaping from fat, I hear you say!

I’ll get to that in a minute, but going back to the old wise saying above the majority of us would rather receive than give (be honest now). When in fact it’s looking at it the complete wrong way round…the more you give away you’ll find the more you’ll get back.

For example…

• Give away time to your child, and you always feel better and both of you have a great time.
• Give money to a poor person thats down on their luck and both of you walk away from it feeling better for it.

But thats all fine and dandy but whats that got to do with weight loss?

And thats what I’m going to ask you now “What are you going to give away this year to become a slimmer healthier person?”

Here’s my 5 suggestions…

1 – Give More Attention To Yourself – How well have you taken care of yourself this year 2009? Have you been putting everyone and everything first compared to you and your health? The thing to remember is if you give more to yourself and take better care of you, you’re going to have a lot more to give back to others. Remember to treat yourself better this year even if its a small token or gift you buy yourself to say job well done…just stay away from food as a treat.

2 – Give Better Food To Yourself – If you looked back over your garbage for this year, how much of your food would have either come from a can or a packet? Make this year the year you change, try to buy more products that come in their natural form and cook them yourself.

And if you can’t cook why not take up cookery lessons? Its a gift to you that you’re always going to have and something you can pass on even to your kids…better eating.

3 – Give Yourself More Free Time – Some people put of getting in shape because they don’t have enough time, is this you. But how is that other people that exercise have the same amount of time 24hours in their day that you have…but the use it differently.

If you looked at your daily habits how much time do you waste doing needless things, for example how much TV do you watch every day? Wouldn’t some of that time be better spent working on your health than just sitting watching the tube?

What about early mornings could you find more free time without family around either to exercise or to plan or make up meals for that day?

4 – Give More Time To Your Kids – You might say that you already do give a lot to your kids, but when was the last time you ran around with them in the park? If you’re like most parents they take their kids to the park sit and watch them at play, but why? Playtime can be a great way to burn calories and have a bonding session with your children. Why not challenge them to a race or bike ride, they’ll savor the chance to beat you and will remember those days for a long time to come.

5 – Give Thanks For What You Have – OK you’re clothes might not fit as well as they used to be what does that mean than your life to going down the drain? Its one thing to focus on being slim but not at the neglect of everything else in your life. So why not take time to be grateful for all the other things that are going great in your life.

Give all of those things this year 2010 and you’ll receive more not just in better health but in better relationships both with your family and also yourself.

Here’s to you in 2010!