Another new year and another new you. How is that transformation coming? Are your New Year’s resolutions still in motion or has that plateau been flatlining? By the look of how empty all the gyms are, I’d say you may need some help.

The key to accomplishing your goals and resolutions are three simple steps: Finding the why, finding a friend and finding a plan.

The first step is finding the why. You need to dig deep and ask yourself why you are doing this? You believed you could before, so what’s stopping you now?

The why is the most important aspect to achieving any goal. It is the motivating factor that will keep you working on your aspiration.

The reason isn’t to prove someone wrong, to get back at someone or to think it will make you happy. The why needs to be correlated with a core value that you hold. If the reason you’re doing it isn’t significant enough, then good luck sticking to it.

Once you figured out the why, you need to find a friend. This could be someone who is trying to accomplish the same resolution. A friend will make the journey fun and help share the load. As long as there is someone holding you accountable to taking the steps required to get there, the better your odds will be to crossing that finish line.

The last step is finding a plan. Planning a schedule of specific days and times will prepare you to take the next step. No one likes change at first, but once you schedule in times, it will soon enough feel like a routine, instead of a chore.

Don’t throw in the proverbial towel just yet; you still have another ten months to go.