New Year Resolution

Did you notice the title of this article is "New Year Resolution" rather than "New Year Resolutions"?  There is a very good reason for this.

The majority of people fail to keep their resolutions.  Many have broken most or all of them before the first week of the New Year has finished!  Why is this?  Why do New Year's Resolutions simply not work for most people?

The reason for this is that most people view New Year's Resolutions as something fleeting.  Something not really intended to last much beyond the holiday season.  They make a whole series of resolutions without any serious intention of getting them to work.

If you really want this year to be better for you than last year, don't fall into the trap of making a bunch of resolutions you are not highly motivated to keep.  If you fall into this trap it is most unlikely you will keep them.  You will feel guilty each time you break another resolution, and you will reinforce the idea that New Year's Resolutions simply do not work, making it even more difficult in future years to make and keep meaningful resolutions.

Instead of having a long list of resolutions you are doomed not to keep, why not just have one New Year Resolution?  Just commit to changing one thing in your life, one thing that will make a real difference.  It is so much easier to tackle one resolution at a time.  There is not really any need even to call it a resolution, especially as New Year's Day has already passed.  Instead, call it a goal.

You should find just renaming your New Year Resolution a goal will make a real difference.  Subconsciously you will be far more committed to achieving it.  Also those around you will probably have a very different attitude.  If you call it a resolution it is only human nature for people to wait to see how long it will be before you break it.  Not at all an encouraging attitude!  But if you call it a goal then you should find at least your real friends (and I include family in this description) will be only too pleased to help you achieve it.  I have heard it said that as a result you are 10 times more likely to succeed.

Sit down right now, or rather when you have finished reading this article, and decide what aspect of your life you would truly like to change.  Something you really want with all your heart's desire.  Choose well and you will be highly motivated to achieve it.

Write down your goal.  Writing it down makes it far more real.

If you really want to succeed, then advertise your new goal.  Post it on Facebook.  Tell your friends.  Now you are really committed.  The people around you will expect to see some results, so do not disappoint them!

Once you have made this commitment draw up a plan of attack.  Write a detailed plan, including mini goals with timescales to achieve them.  Or perhaps just enter the timescale for the first mini goal, with the others to be filled in as you achieve each mini goal.

Post updates in social media.  This will encourage you to keep going, and will also probably generate further encouragement from your followers.

Use any tools you may find helpful to keep you focused on achieving your goal.  If you subscribe to my newsletter you will see many such tools, and some of them will be the perfect fit for you.  You can subscribe to my newsletter here and at the same time get four free e-books which will also help you along the way to your goal:  www.beallican.com.

Once you reach your goal it is then time to pick the next one.  Don't worry if it is not yet New Year.  Hopefully you will achieve more than one goal in a year so don't wait until the next New Year celebrations before working on a new goal.  Within a few years you will find you have achieved far more, and are probably far happier, than would have been the case if you had stuck to the tradition of setting New Year's Resolutions.

Credit for image:  Jenny Rollo, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia