New Year's Resolutions - Get over the hump!
At the end of the year and the start of the new year, everyone was talking about new goals, new resolutions, and new me’s for 2021. Everyone does them whether you write them down and announce them proudly, or you think them up in your head and decide not to share. It’s a time when we all think about how we are or were before and how we want to be moving forward. It’s a time of reflection, feedback, and self-improvement.
However, after a month into 2021 many people are failing at their New Year’s Resolutions and/or struggling to stay on track. It’s no different than any other year. Statistics say that only 8-10% of people actually achieve their New Year’s Resolutions and only 20% make it six weeks! Before we hit the 6-week deadline, I wanted to share some tips to help us stay on track or regroup and get back on track to achieve our goals for the new year. The good news is, you’re not out of the fight yet even if you have been failing miserably. Start today and set some goals for yourself. If you hate New Year’s Resolutions, that’s fine, just start today and make some positive changes or create some positive habits.
Self-improvement is the reason I love to create New Year’s Resolutions. It’s an opportunity to get better. It’s like the beginning of a season, everyone’s undefeated when they start out. It’s an opportunity to improve my systems to create a better, happier, more authentic version of myself. And although I’m doing well, the drive to be a better person than I was last year compels me! It is also true that I haven’t been perfect with my New Year’s Resolutions, but I have been working hard to stay on track and continue to move forward. The way I look at it, you don’t need to throw a perfect game, just throw your best pitches and continue to find ways to get outs and move on to the next inning. Some innings will be three up, three down; while others will be full of errors. Either way, we have to keep competing and find a way to win!
I am an extremely competitive person and I have a competitive mindset at all times. But, I am not in competition with others, I am in direct competition with myself and the standards I set for myself. I don’t compare myself to others or try to be better than this person or that person. Sure, I catch myself slipping at times if I’m on social media comparing my life to someone else’s. But I quickly get back to my competitive mindset to be better than I was yesterday. That’s the competition that drives me and that’s why I get excited about creating New Year’s Resolutions or starting new goals.
This year, I unpacked my goals from the top down. I went from ultimate life goals to 5-10 year goals to 2021 goals to January – March goals. And from there I created 5 daily goals, 5 every other day goals, and 5 weekly goals. So this year my goals were both macro (Life goals) and micro (daily goals). I’ve never done my New Year’s Resolutions this way, but I thought it would be a good way to set a vision, but focus on the day-to-day tasks that I have control over. It’s working well and it gives me a routine to stick to throughout the daily and weekly grind. I know that every day I have five habits that I MUST achieve and it feels good when I complete those habits for the day or week.
New year’s Resolutions and/or goals can be anything you want them to be. Some people choose one word to be their mantra for the year and make decisions and take actions based on that one word. Some people set one BIG new year’s resolution and everything revolves around the one big change. I choose to set a vision and focus on my daily and weekly tasks to try to win as many days and weeks as I can to keep me on track. The fun part is you can do them however you want to do them and all you have to do is ask for what you want! But, you cannot receive if you don’t ask.
So I came up with three easy tips to help you keep your resolutions or stay on track to achieve your goals. I didn’t reinvent the wheel here, but these simple tips can make a huge difference. And the great part is, you can start today and you don’t need to be perfect. But you do need to do your very best to stay on track. If you don’t hit your mark, then look at your process to see what you can improve so that you do hit your mark!
THREE TIPS TO KEEP NEW YEAR’S RESOLUTIONS
1. Write your New Year’s Resolutions down!
Or type them and print them. When you write them down, you make your goals or resolutions a real artifact and create a contract with yourself that helps keep you accountable. It also gives you a clear target and a reminder of what you want in life and how you want to be. So write those goals down!
2. Focus on Small Wins.
Outcome goals are good to have because you can evaluate how you’re doing and it gives you feedback. But you can’t lose 15 pounds today or make an extra $10,000 today. What you can do is obsess and focus on your process. The small wins will compound over time to get you to your goal. So set some goals, but focus on your daily and weekly process. What do you need to do daily or weekly to achieve the goal? Obsess over those and keep track of how you’re doing with those goals. If you lose the 15 pounds, great! If not, then what do you need to change daily or weekly to get there?
3. Have an Accountability Partner(s)
You don’t have to announce your goals on Facebook, but if you have someone to share your results with it will greatly increase your chances of achieving those goals. If I have to go to the gym in the morning, there’s a chance I might hit that snooze button, but if I am meeting a friend for an early morning workout there is absolutely no chance I will let them down. Having an accountability partner helps keep you accountable to yourself and gives you someone to share your successes and failures with.
I have implemented all three of these tips to help me achieve my own goals. I write down goals every year, month, week, and even day if you count to-do lists. I broke down my BIG goals into daily and weekly actions to create Small Wins. And I have an accountability team of friends who are all working hard to implement intermittent fasting. We have a text group and we send each other positive or funny messages about trying to stay on track. It makes it more fun and we can laugh about the struggle and celebrate our successes!
Good luck staying on track with your New Year’s Resolution’s or your goals! Whether you are on track or not, just keep trying to move forward. As long as you are moving forward and making progress, you will feel good. Winning and losing matter, but they are out of our control. What we can control is our effort, attitude, and focus. Keep those three things in line by using the tips above and you’ll give yourself the best chance to win!