Script: Hello everyone, welcome back. Happy Holidays! Every year, around the end of December, millions of people make New Year's resolutions, hoping to spark positive changes. The recurring themes each year include fitness and health, improved finances, and personal and professional development. The most common resolutions are: 1. Exercise more 2. Eat better 3. Lose weight 4. Reduce stress 5. Quit smoking 6. Reduce drinking 7. Learn a new skill, hobby or language 8. Make more money, or save more money (spend less money) 9. spend more time with family and friends. 10. Spend less time on social media Despite the best of intentions, once the excitement of the New Year wears off, many people struggle to follow through on their plans. Here are some tips that may help you achieve your goals. 1. Mentally prepare for changes. In order to achieve your goals, you need to make changes. Ask yourself if you are ready to make those changes now. Try not to make big and quick changes, any changes should be gradual. 2. Set a goal that motivates you. Your resolution should be for yourself only, not for your spouse or your boss. If you are coerced into setting these goals in order to please another person, you will not be truly motivated, and you might even feel a bit resentful. 3. Limit resolutions to a manageable amount. A common mistake in making resolutions is that you are having too many. Five is already too many. I would suggest keeping the number to no more than three. 4. Be specific. For example, "I want to lose weight" is too general. "I want to lose 10 lbs by May". That's specific and measurable. 5. Break up bigger goals into smaller goals. Let's use the example in #4. I want to lose ten pounds by May. That's the big goal. The small goal will be like, I want to lose three pounds in January, and about two pounds in each month. For those of you who have tried to lose weight, you know you will lose the initial couple of pounds pretty quickly in the first couple of weeks, and then the rate of weight loss slows down. 6. Write down your goals, and review them from to time. If you make a progress, pat yourself on the back, and if you fall off track, don't be too hard on yourself. Get back on track. Vocabulary 1. recurring - happen again periodically; repeatedly 2. coerced - to coerce somebody means to persuade an unwilling person to do something; To be coerced means to be pressured by somebody. 3. Pat yourself on the back – to congratulate yourself.

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