Happy New
Year! What a wonderful time! This is the perfect time and
opportunity to make a difference in your life.
So, what is your goal? Wait! Before you even state it, let’s ensure that
you are fully equipped with the ability to stick to it this year. If you’ve had any difficulty following
through with your resolutions in the past, this year, your primary resolution
should be to stick to your resolution once and for all! How, you ask?
Good question.
Studies show
that many set resolutions to stick to, but find that by mid-February to early
March of the same year, most if not all have abandoned the resolutions they’ve
so earnestly set forth for the year. Why is this? It’s easy to make a
statement and hope for the best. The
tough part is the implementation of the goal.
Many people rush into their resolutions full throttle without
establishing a plan to ensure that the goal gets accomplished, and once they
get started, keeping up with the goal nearly feels like the possibility of
12-month long sentence, and they opt to abandon it often feeling the
ambivalence of liberation and freedom from the sentence and guilt or
disappointment for giving up prematurely or failing. 2014 will NOT be the year that we let
our resolutions fall by the wayside. With
this 5-step process, we’ll enter this decade with optimism and the tools to
ensure that we all finally reach our goals!
Be
Specific
When
formulating your resolution, think with specificity. Avoid only arriving at a goal. Go further to describe how you intend to accomplish
it. It isn’t enough to say that I want
to lose weight or I want to make new friends.
Making your resolution a specific statement such as, “I will lose 20
pounds by becoming more physically active and consuming healthy, nutrient-rich
foods,” or “I will establish new friendships by visiting new places and
initiating conversations with people that I do not know,” literally calls into
being the thing that you want while simultaneously giving you tasks to perform
in effort to accomplish your goal.
Without a plan to ensure that the goal actually gets accomplished,
you’ll more than likely fail to accomplish the goal.
Set
Realistic Mini-goals
Once you’ve
come up with your resolution statement, go even further and begin creating a
plan to carry it out. Develop a list of
mini goals that can be accomplished throughout the year at your pace. The overall goal
of starting a new business venture, losing weight or getting out of debt can
seem to be quite daunting when you consider doing them all at once or even
within just one year, but it doesn’t have to be daunting or intimidating at
all. Take these goals and break them down
into steps. If the goal is to start a
new business, consider what steps will be involved in this endeavor and allow for
a realistic timeline to complete each goal.
Your list should include items such as, “Research the process of
securing a business license by 1/31/2014.”
This gives you something that can be accomplished fairly easily and a
time frame in which to complete it.
Creating this list not only allows you to see all that is involved in
the process of reaching your goals, it also allows you to track your progress. Seeing steady progress is a huge reward! Whether your goal is large or small, it is
always very encouraging to feel you’re moving just a little closer to it on a
regular basis.
Be
Flexible
If your
standards for yourself are too rigid, your goal may begin to feel like a chore,
and I don’t know anyone who enjoys doing chores. Start slowly.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and let’s face it, you didn’t become who you
are in a day either. It will take time
to kick your old habits and start new ones, so allow yourself some flexibility
to learn the best path to your goal. If
you go off track, don’t feel guilty or criticize yourself. Allow yourself room to be human. After all, who says the New Year is the only time to begin working toward a
resolution? Check in with yourself
regularly to determine how much you’ve progressed. Mark your calendar for a mid-year update and
if necessary, set a mid-year (or even a late year) resolution that gets you
back on track to meeting your goal. So
what if you started off with can-do attitude and by mid-February your
motivation has fizzled and your shiny new resolution was swept under the rug or
maybe even out the door. You still have
time…don’t you? As long as you collect
yourself and get back on track, you’re still making progress.
Support
Yourself
Even the
most successful individuals have a support system. Tell a supportive friend, family member or co-worker
about your new goal or solicit the help of a professional working in the area
in which you desire to progress (i.e., a
life coach, therapist, personal trainer, accountant, etc.) or join a group of
people interested in accomplishing the same or a similar goal. The more positive people in your life that can hold
you accountable and encourage you in the process, the more likely you’ll be to
feel confident in your pursuit. Steer
clear of sharing your goal with people who may criticize you if they notice you
going off track if this is offensive to you.
Feeling as though you’re under a microscope is yet another way to
heighten pressure. This process should
be new and exciting, not anxiety-provoking.
Ensure that you’re making choices that you’re confident you can commit
to. Also, avoid choosing to engage in
any activity in which you cannot afford to invest adequate time or money. If you find your time or financial resources
running low, you’ll kick your new habit even faster than you started it.
Have
Fun!
Let’s face
it, if it isn’t fun, oftentimes, we don’t feel it’s worth doing. There are tons of different paths to a
destination. So, if weight loss is your
goal and you hate the gym, avoid it at all costs, but don’t abandon your goal
because of your disdain for the treadmill and elliptical. There are plenty of creative ways to get
active. Take a yoga class or walk a
trail in your neighborhood. Surf online
for free workouts via You Tube or pop your favorite CD in the player and dance
the night away. If you want to make new
friends, determine the types of people you’d like to meet and strategically
choose exciting places you’ve never visited (but maybe always wanted to), go
there and strike up conversations to meet new and interesting people. There is ALWAYS
more than one solution. So, make it easy
on yourself by choosing ways to bring your resolution to fruition that are fun
for you. If you don’t enjoy yourself in
the process, you’re more likely to call it quits before the goal is
accomplished. If you’re having a ball
doing it, you’ll fall in love with the process and stick to it far longer
thereby significantly increasing the likelihood of ultimately reaching your
goal.
The simple
thought of failure often cripples us by playing over and over again in our
minds. Before long, failure, not the
identified goal, becomes the dominant thought, and the beautiful outcome of
achieving that awesome new goal fades to the background. The key to achieving our goals is allowing
the goal, not our fears, to be in the forefront and establishing awesome new
habits that are in alignment with our goals which, unfortunately, is often the
part that is overlooked. Often, if
we don’t see progress immediately, we become overwhelmed with disappointment
and highly frustrated. In the process
of change, we must be gentle and patient with ourselves. It took us time to become the people that we
are, so, realistically, it will take us time to develop, implement and
master new habits to move in the desired direction. With diligence, faith, self-love, creativity
and flexibility, we’ll be certain to see the greatest of our dreams come
true!
Best of luck to you and best
wishes for a happy and fulfilling New Year! Shine your Light super bright and make 2014 SPARKLE & GLEAM!!!!
Twinkle & beam, Starlights!
J*
