Most people make blanket statements for their resolutions. Things like “I’m going to get healthy” or “I’m going to make my business successful”. The problem with these kind of resolutions is that they are focusing on the outcome… Not the cause. It is very hard to establish the steps needed to actually accomplish these goals so we spend a couple of weeks working long hours or hitting the gym only to go right back to doing what we were doing before. Ask yourself “what habits or actions contribute to me needing to make this change?” Do you procrastinate at work? Do you skip breakfast?    

The easiest way to make a big change in your life is to take small steps. Pick one of these bad habits to change. After a while it will become automatic and you can pick another small thing to change. Before you know it, you will need to start making different resolutions every year because your past ones actually stuck! 

A wise teacher was taking a stroll through the forest with a young pupil and stopped before a tiny tree. “Pull up that sapling,” the teacher instructed his pupil, pointing to a sprout just coming up from the earth. The youngster pulled it up easily with his fingers. “Now pull up that one,” said the teacher, indicating a more established sapling that had grown to about knee high to the boy. With little effort, the lad yanked and the tree came up, roots and all. “And now, this one,” said the teacher, nodding toward a more well-developed evergreen that was as tall as the young pupil. With great effort, throwing all his weight and strength into the task, using sticks and stone he found to pry up the stubborn roots, the boy finally got the tree loose. “Now,” the wise one said, “I’d like you to pull this one up.” The young boy followed the teacher’s gaze, which fell upon a mighty oak so tall the boy could scarcely see the top. Knowing the great struggle he’d just had pulling up the much smaller tree, he simply told his teacher, “I am sorry, but I can’t.” “My son, you have just demonstrated the power that habits will have over your life!” the teacher exclaimed. “The older they are, the bigger they get, the deeper the roots grow, and the harder they are to uproot. Some get so big, with roots so deep, you might hesitate to even try.”

I got this story from the book ‘the Compound Effect’ by @darrenhardy . It is a great resource and I highly recommend that you read it.