New Resolutions for the New Year? Forget about it!
Every single year they get talked about, discussed, tossed around, enhanced, compared to previous years, improved upon, and then discarded. Resolutions have proven to be such a waste of time for generations. And yet, we continue to utilize a specific date on a calendar as a starting point as if it had a unique power over all the other 364 days in a year. It doesn’t, except in society’s frame of mind. But your mind has free will at your disposal 24/7/365 and I’m curious how you’re utilizing that incredible mind of yours to your advantage when it comes to pursuing the things you dream about, you know, the things most important to your strategy of living a full and wonderful life.
Please don’t think for even a minute that I don’t love, support, embrace, and utilize “Goals” because they’ve been an important part of my success in life. Truth is, I feel that the purpose, importance, and “how to” of goals is never properly implanted in our minds. The only people taking advantage of the benefits having goals provides a person’s life are the ones who have pursued studying the proper use of them and implementing them in their lives to the point that they become something that closely resembles a character trait.
Years ago, my research pertaining to goals landed me in a good place that I’ve written about before. I’ve taken full advantage of using SMART Goals to achieve success in the 8 categories that define my Wheel of Life. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. SMART Goals are what provide balance in my Wheel of Life. The 8 spokes, or categories that make up my Wheel of Life are: Family, Professional, Spiritual, Community, Health, Self-Improvement, Financial, and one I call “Give Back.” The Wheel of Life is worthy of a separate article, but suffice it to say that without SMART Goals my Wheel of Life loses most of its value.
Back to using the first day of the year as a starting point. My biggest concern is the rate of failure with goals and resolutions that utilize a start date of January 1. It’s a near guarantee that you’ll create an ongoing negative mindset for just about everything you attempt to achieve in life. It’s a perfect setup for the “I tried but it didn’t work” blame game that has you boarding the defeated bus with a destination of nowhere. The road the defeated bus travels along is the downward spiral fast track of the 5 D’s with stops at Disappointment, Discouragement, Doubt, Depression, and a final stop at Despair. That just isn’t the bus you want to be on…is it?
But you don’t have to board the defeated bus. Instead, you can jump on the bus whose destination is the fulfillment of your dreams. You know, your happy place. The place where you experience the greatest level of inner-peace and joy. You can jump on the success bus any day of the year. The most important part is that you actually take action and make the conscious decision to step on board and stay on board the bus that will take you where you truly want to go in life. Once on the success bus, it’s important to utilize tools like SMART goals for each area of your Wheel of Life you’ll be traveling through.
Maybe you’re still not convinced that ANY day is a good day to begin pursuing goals that your life is worthy of. Maybe you’re still going to come up with New Year’s resolutions that you know you’ll never keep even for the 21 days it takes to create a new habit. You’ll just pamper yourself with the lame-o excuse “At least I tried” and move on having given it a less than mediocre effort.
Why would we do that to ourselves? Because we overlook the fact that New Year’s resolutions fail because of a mismatch between how we set them and how behavior change actually works. There’s something psychologically appealing about a fresh start on January 1st, but this “magic date” thinking can backfire. People tend to set ambitious goals without adequate preparation, applying temporary motivation rather than creating a sustainable process and strategy. Get healthy, lose weight, or exercise more never translates into consistent actions. And when people do get specific, they frequently go too far like committing to working out every day when they currently work out zero times per week. I’ll finish up my negative rant by adding that we frequently overestimate our personal willpower and have nothing in our hopper for handling setbacks.
If you simply must create new year’s resolutions because that’s what you’ve always done, at least give yourself a chance for success at keeping them. Resolutions that actually stick tend to be smaller, more specific, linked to existing habits, and framed as experiments rather than permanent transformations. Starting with “I’ll walk for ten minutes after my morning coffee” is far more sustainable than “I’m going to become a runner.”
It’s true that I’ve wired my brain to honestly believe in each and one of you and constantly want to encourage and inspire you. But that won’t move the needle on your personal “success in life gauge.” The only thing that can move that needle is if you believe in yourself (and I hope you do!). When a person believes in themselves, there are no limits to the success they can achieve in each area of their own personal wheel of life. So, if January 1st works for you…go for it, but just remember that there are 364 other days that can work equally as well. The most important part is that YOU PICK ONE! Hey…I Believe In YOU! GiddyUp!