New Years Eve is almost upon us. While 2020 has been one for the record books, there’s something refreshing about a new year.
Put all of last year’s distractions and deviations aside, and lay out some fresh new plans for the next 365.
A New Year’s Resolution - it’s almost mythic in it’s universal applicability. Yet while millions of people make bold proclamations, why does it then follow that a month later those plans and schemes sound more like pipe dreams?
Why are resolutions so difficult? And how can you set resolutions that actually stick?
The first reason so many resolutions fail by the end of the 3rd week, is the toughest hurdle to overcome.
What do you want?
Seriously, what do you want? Put aside the instagram / twitter / snapchat goals. The 15 milliseconds of fame that you’ll garner putting up pictures of your life’s highlight reel doesn’t show your true wants.
Rather than taking an inventory of the instagram pictures you want to capture, take an inventory of the things that are important in your life. Focus on what you truly value. And then set a resolution, a goal, that helps that area of your life.
For me, I give myself a few types of goals focused on these areas:
Career, Financial, Romance, Physical Health, Mental Health, and Relationships with Family & Friends.
Each of these areas are important to my greater success. Shoring up and doing better on that scorecard will lead me to a more fulfilling life.
Kiss the scorecard.
Once you know the areas of your life that you want to focus on improving, there’s only one thing left to do.
KISS.
Keep It Simple, Stupid.
Aside from chasing someone else’s dream, we so often go wrong making grandiose plans. Set a goal that’s realistic. A goal that you can clearly see the action plan to.
If you can’t figure out how to get there by taking one action a day, your resolution is too complex to stick with.
Resolutions aren’t an episode of intervention. You aren’t reinventing yourself in 60 minutes, less commercial breaks. Resolutions are identifying those one or two behaviours that you can do repeatedly. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Once you know what to do, the real battle begins. Tenacity and perseverance aren’t just buzz-words on a resume, they are the way.
If you want to be successful, no matter the resolution that you set, you need to follow through. Day after day, week after week, month after month. Grit. Stubborn determination. The secret of success.
As you fire off the cork on the bubbly this New Years, remember your New Year’s KISS. Someone is going to start talking about their resolutions. No matter how cool someone else’s dreams sound, stick in your own lane. What is important to you? How can you improve those areas of your life?
And keep it simple. No 14 step plans. Your resolution shouldn’t need a flow-chart. Just one step. And another. And then another. And a year from now, you’ll be raising a glass to your successes, and getting ready for another new year’s kiss.