January is that magical month when we get to wipe our life's slate clean and begin again, and this month we're not only celebrating a new year but a new decade! What better time to put the past behind us,  take stock of ourselves and with a fresh, positive outlook, set out to really achieve our new year's resolutions in the months ahead.

Some of us will decide this is the year we're going to quit smoking; some are determined to shed those extra kilos (or pounds!), and like many other Anglophone Riviera residents, here on the FR2DAY team one of our colleagues has finally decided to tackle learning French.

But despite setting out with the best of intentions, when it comes to new year's resolutions, many of us find our initial enthusiasm soon wanes and it's not long before we slip back into our same old habits. So how can we make our resolutions resiliant, rather than something to feel guilty about until the next New Year rolls around?

According to Life Coach Alison Rentoul of Riviera Coaching, there are three keys to actually making our resolutions a reality. "The first lies in discovering our true motivation for wanting to make these changes in our lives," Alison begins. For our FR2DAY colleague that means listing the many reasons he wants to learn the lingo, starting with what not speaking French is currently costing him: Suffering ritual humiliation in shops; arguing innefectively over erroneous restaurant bills and frustratlingly inarticulate road rage, to name a few. Meanwhile, a would-be non-smoker might focus on their wish to see their children grow up with healthy parents as role models, and those wishing to lose weight could have a desire to fit into their favourite old jeans or simply regain their joie de vivre.

Now that we know what's at stake if we don't keep our resolutions, as well as what we'll gain if we do, Alison reveals that the second key lies in implementing an action plan to set us on our new path. "As Einstein reputedly once said, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over but expecting different results," she explains. "What new steps are you going to take daily, weekly and monthly to ensure that you actually keep these new promises to yourself? Generate a list of options and pick as many as you can that you WILL do, to move you towards your goal."

Alison's third and final tip is to put your mantra where your mouth is: "Write your goal in the positive present tense, as though you already have achieved it, and then put this somewhere you will see it every day. Reading and repeating these affirmations to yourself will help establish them as truths in your subconscious and the reality will soon follow."

So, for our Francophilically challenged FR2DAY colleague, this means sticking a post-it on his fridge that says: "Je parle et écris Français parfaitement et je deviens le prochain Voltaire!" We certainly hope so as one of our FR2DAY resolutions is to have our site up and running in French in the very near future!

N.B. While we trust Alison's tips will really work, we've also made him promise that if he doesn't stick to his resolution he'll be running butt naked down the Promenade des Anglais next New Year's Day. We'll keep you updated.

You can contact Alison Rentoul by email or by telephone on  +33(0)4 93 58 14 08

Riviera Coaching is based in La Colle sur Loup, near St Paul de Vence and Alison specialises in Life and Business Coaching for English speakers seeing a faster, easier way to identify and achieve their lifetime goals and ambitions.

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