A Bride's Quick Guide to Staying Motivated as She Plans Her Wedding

You have your 2015 goals lined up and ready to go, with planning your wedding at the top of the list. You're ready to tackle your to-dos head on. The first couple days you find yourself ahead of schedule. Fantastic! But as the days and weeks go by, you find your motivation slipping and begin thinking it's impossible to get everything done. What's the cure? How do you stay focused and pumped when it comes to your goals? Here's a quick guide:

• Keep It in Front of You: Having your goals in the forefront of your mind is as simple as posting them somewhere you look regularly, like your bathroom mirror or refrigerator door. But it's not only about what those goals are, it's also about the inspiration behind them. Include inspiring quotes or other motivating words next to your goals to keep you excited about them!
• Be Realistic: Sometimes smaller is better. Don't give yourself tasks that you know you can't accomplish. Break things down into smaller parts and do a little bit. Doing a little something is better than nothing at all, which can happen if the task at hands seems unmanageable. Celebrate all your accomplishments! It will help you stay motivated and moving forward.
• Write Out Your Strengths: Start journaling about all your positive qualities, abilities and strengths. Recognizing where you shine is a great way to remind yourself that you have tools you can use to get stuff done. Whether it's being super organized or crafty and creative, you can use those skills and many others when it comes to planning your wedding. You may even want to start on a task that utilizes your talents. You'll find it more fun and will likely be quicker to get some things crossed off your list early on. 
• Look at Your Past: There have been plenty of things you've been successful at in the past. Think graduating university, tackling a difficult project, or moving up in the ranks at your job. By remembering personal successes in your life, you're more likely to keep yourself motivated without feelings of doubt. If you were successful in the past, you can do it again! 
• Get Support: Everything is more fun and exciting when you have people cheering you on. Create a bridal brigade consisting of close friends or family who are as excited as you and who want to help. Find ways they can help you stay happy and inspired. Then celebrate your successes together, with a fun get together or night out. Just ne more reason to stay on track.

What motivates you? We'd love to hear your thoughts on what keeps you going!

Why Most New Year's Resolutions Fail

f you're one of the many people skeptically writing up your New Year's resolutions for 2015, this post is for you. Sure, you may have had resolutions before, maybe for more years then you can count, but they never seem to stick. What gives? Why haven't you succeeded in fulfilling your goals?

You can and you will succeed if you understand why most resolutions fail. Aside from setting realistic goals, here are the top reasons you may be coming up short when it comes to achieving success:

Your Resolution is Not Specific Enough: This is a big one. Whether you're creating wedding day goals or everyday ones, you MUST be specific. It isn't good enough to say, "I want to lose weight." How much do you want to weigh? How are you going to do it? Who's going to help you or where will your weight loss program take place? It's okay if your resolution is more than one sentence long, in fact, it's better. The more details you incorporate, the more likely you are to succeed, because you're backing it up with a plan.

Your Resolution is Not Measurable: Sometimes we like to include feel good resolutions like, "I want to be a better person" or "I want to be a confident bride." Unless you can define what either of those mean and figure out a way to measure it, you're setting yourself up for failure. That's not to say you shouldn't aim for these things, you may just have to tweak it. If being confident means standing up for your wedding hopes and dreams, you can make it measurable by rephrasing it as, "I will be able to express my wedding day vision whenever challenged to change my decisions." While you can make this statement more specific, it's now measurable in that you can tally up the times you are able to confidently express yourself.

Your Resolution is Not Time Bound: Open-ended resolutions are about as successful as no resolutions at all. You can't hold yourself accountable for your actions if you don't have a time-frame. This is critical. Having a date to complete your resolution by creates a sense of urgency to get it done. If there's no deadline, you'll find plenty of excuses for not getting it done. Be your own boss and give yourself a project due date. It's the only way to have a successful goal.