This is the time of year many of us are looking to make New Year’s resolutions. It’s a tradition in many countries, to set goals for self improvement or personal gain. But, usually these resolutions come with a price - pain. Like having to cut out food you love to lose weight, or the effort of working out to become fitter or maybe cutting out your favourite coffee shop to save more money. All good goals, all with some pain attached to them. Is it any wonder that we forget our new years resolutions as we fall back into everyday life in January? Instead of setting goals that you see as sacrifice or painful, how about setting a win/win goal? A goal that is achievable, yet fun too. How about a resolution to do at least one trip, one adventure, one outing that stretches your personal comfort zone, yet rewards you with experience. The melding of personal growth with motorcycle adventure. But, how to go about it to ensure success? We decided to find out more about setting New Year’s resolutions. We found that in a study at the University of Bristol, Professor Richard Wiseman showed that only 12% of people achieve their goals. Of course, most goals include weight loss, cutting back on alcohol consumption or quitting smoking. The usual. Daunting tasks that are hard to follow through. His study showed that men were more likely to succeed if they set definitive goals, instead of general goals such as lose a pound a week instead of just lose weight, or if they focused on the rewards, such as having the opposite sex find them more attractive. Women found it easier to achieve their goals when they shared their resolutions with friends and family. Encouragement not to give up just because they had given in and had some taboo chocolate, goes a long way to being seen as a setback rather than as having failed. The New Years resolution study resulted in some tips for being successful with your resolutions: avoid previous resolutions, think and plan what your resolution could be, be specific about it and then make only one resolution. So, this year why not make a fun New Year’s resolution? Make a goal to take that trip you’ve always wanted to do. And do whatever it takes to make sure that you realize that goal. Make a plan, share with friends, focus on the rewards… and get going. Source: http://www.richardwiseman.com/quirkology/new/USA/Experiment_resolution.shtml To Mongolia and Back: Derek Mansfield We’ve heard some inspiring stories this past year… riders who have just decided to travel, for whatever reason, and in any way they could find to do it. They just did it. And not one person came back and said they didn’t get anything out of it. And in this episode, we have a story to share with you that isn’t exactly a New Year’s resolution, but it’s a goal that Derek Mansfield set for himself, to travel to Mongolia because, well… that’s what adventure riders do. Some of the music on ARR can be found at: www.audionautix.com More of our best motorcycle podcast episodes available at www.AdventureRiderRadio.com