I do not know if this is just an American pass time but every New Year many of us make a list of resolutions of things we promise ourselves to do but are quickly forgotten.
One of the most popular is losing weight. Weight Watchers, Nutrisystems and Jenny Craig all enroll thousands of new participants. The gyms all sign up hundreds and perhaps thousands of new members. Clearly this is a commercial bonus.
There are however many other kinds of resolutions. One person I know writes out a set of goals for the new year. He revises them annually. In his case that set of goals gives him directions to his life.
Forbes Magazine posts on line Seven Strategies for Highly Effective New Year’s Resolutions. Summarized as follows:
- Know Your Why. For a resolution to stick, it has to be aligned with your core values. In other words, you have to “Know your why” and feel truly passionate about the goals you set for yourself.
- Be Specific. Resolutions to ‘eat better, get fitter, be happier, relax more or have better life balance’ are doomed for failure because they lack specificity.
- Don’t Just Think It, Ink it! A Stanford University study found that when people wrote down their goal, it increased the probability of them achieving it by over 70%.
- Design Your Environment. Design your environment so that it’s hard NOT to do what you resolved. Create a progress chart, recruit a cheer squad among your family and friends, find someone to hold you accountable, hire a trainer, join a group, create a blog.
- Narrow Your Efforts. Set yourself up for success and start with JUST ONE MAJOR UNDERTAKING come starting January 1st.
- Focus On The Process. PERSISTENCE ALWAYS PAYS OFF.
- Forgive Your Failures. Your setbacks and failures will not define your success in the year ahead or any year. HOW YOU RESPOND WILL.
What are my resolutions? I have none today. I have never believed this process is a worthwhile endeavor. I have made resolutions but they were not tied to New Year’s day.
Good Luck!
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