When the clock struck midnight on New Year's Eve, Heather Behrens' resolve was set on one thing.

"My new year's resolution is to stick to my new year's resolution," she said.

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In the next year, Behrens wants to eat better, exercise more, be a better mommy to her two kids and grow out her hair.

Although she's never been able to follow through on these goals before, Behrens is getting a little help this year.

She went to several experts before Jan. 1 so she could figure out what direction she needed to go. For better eating habits, she's going to a nutritionist. For getting in shape, she's seeing a personal trainer. For growing out her hair, she is thinking about getting hair extensions.

The Dallas mom and professional feels her goals are entirely within reach because she has developed techniques to help her succeed.

But for many others, the toll of the clock meant the beginning of another year of setting goals that won't be achieved.

Stair-Stepping Mindset

Pauline Wallin, a clinical psychologist in private practice, said there are many reasons a person will not follow through with her resolutions. For example, failure happens when someone sets a big goal, but not stair-stepping goals to get there, or when people don't have fallback plans for when things get tough.

She said she believes the main reason for failure is the wrong mindset.

"The biggest thing in terms of failure is the struggle between the short-term discomfort that we feel -- tired, lazy, hungry -- and the long-term benefit," she said. "If we can't hold our long-term goals more important than our short-term cravings, we're going to fail."

Kay Cannon, president of International Coach Federation and a life coach since 1998, said it's not uncommon to not meet goals.

"Sometimes, we'll choose goals that may be so big that the sense of trying to accomplish it becomes overwhelming, so we become self-defeated when we don't see change," he said.

Write It Down

But that doesn't have to be the case. Like Behrens, people can instigate custom techniques to help them meet their goals. If a nutritionist or personal trainer are not an option to help you get in shape, try keeping an exercise log or food diary.

"Put it on paper," Cannon said. "It's one thing to talk about it, another to write it down. Put it where you can see it all the time."

Cannon suggested posting goals around the house and at the office, too.

"If they're working on a goal that's really important to them, it will actually cross both their personal and professional sectors of their life," she said. "Make it to where it's first and foremost on the mind."

Wallin said keeping diaries like these keeps people accountable to themselves.

"Just writing down what you eat, you're going to eat less," she said. "Knowing you're going to write down your running log, you're going to push yourself more. When you monitor any behavior, it improves."

Not All-Or-Nothing

Wallin said people often get caught in all-or-nothing thinking. If they mess up and eat a piece of chocolate, it is easy to fall into the trap of believing they have blown the goal and devouring the whole bag of candy. But slipping up is OK, she said.

Another way to keep on track is through accountability with other people. Cannon, who has a life coach herself, said getting coaches or trainers is a great way to ensure you'll be successful.

"If there's another individual that you trust and respect, and you share with them whatever that goal is, that makes you accountable," Cannon said. "It makes it bigger than yourself."

Change Through The Year

Wallin said New Year's is always a popular time to set goals because it offers an inherent group support mentality, but she said it is not the only time to make goals.

"If you haven't made your resolutions or acted on anything by the end of January, don't wait until next January," she said. "Do it when you're ready."

Cannon doesn't make New Year's resolutions because when she recognizes something needs to change in her life, she begins making that change immediately. She said this is common in many of her clients.

"What I've been seeing is that people aren't waiting for the new year to make goals around changing and transforming their lives," she said. "I'm seeing people that will recognize they want something different, and they will actually initiate change and set a goal and work toward it all through the year."

Wallin said it's important that people build in small goals while aiming for the ultimate goal. Whether you're attempting to be more organized, spend less money, quit smoking, or finish that long-overdue project, Wallin advised setting a small milestone and picking a time and date and marking that on your calendar.

Make this date non-negotiable. For her, this technique works when she's cleaning out an office or working on writing a book.

Control The Process

But the most important thing to ensuring success in meeting your resolutions is defining why this particular goal is important to you.

"If you're setting that goal to make somebody else happy, it's going to be really hard to follow through. You need to look inside yourself and see what it is about the goal that's meaningful to you," Cannon said.

After defining why your goal is important, you must then figure out the goal.

"You want to define what success means to you because success can be the outcome or the process," Wallin said. "You don't have control so much over the pounds on the scale, what you do have control over is the process." Other Links:

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