Resolute Resolutions

   Have you decided on your New Year's resolutions yet? How devoted are you to achieving your goals?

   For many of us, the start of the year brings a renewed focus on our career, health, and financial goals. “This year will be the year I get in shape. This year I will get that career promotion. This year I will take control over my finances.”

   As anyone who has been to the gym that first week of January will tell you, it is crowded. People are committed to their yearly goals. But one by one, as the days go by people lose that firm grasp on their resolutions. Perhaps you  notice something similar when you look at your previous goal performance. Soon enough, as we approach the end of that first month, that crowded gym is back to looking just as it did before the new year began. 

Why do people abandon their goals?

   There are a few reasons why people abandon their goals. The most prevalent one that affects most “New Year New Me” people is overwhelm. Overwhelm assaults our good intentions in many different ways. That top 10 list of things they want to do differently in the new year, but if they were to stick with them all they would lose sight of who they are. Or that BHAG that isn’t set 10 years into the future, but rather 10 months into the future. Progress seems almost non-existent despite working exhausting hours, and suddenly that goal looks like we just bit off more than we can chew. Or life simply gets in the way. How many good intentions have faded away after life throws us a curve-ball, an untimely illness, or a sudden vacation or work trip. Overwhelm has many weapons with which to cause us to falter in our quest for greatness. 

   Another reason is the goal is too vague. “Get healthier” doesn’t come with an action plan. Neither does “get a promotion”, or “be better with my money”. If you aren’t specific about the result you are wanting to achieve, it is impossible to put an action plan in place. And without an action plan, it becomes easy to talk ourselves out of doing anything.

   Finally, the inability to measure our progress hinders our ability to grow and develop. Without seeing if our actions are paying off, it is easy to rationalize that our efforts simply aren’t working. Certainly some things are easier to measure than others, but all of our goals should be measurable. Seeing progress will help us stay the course throughout the ups and downs of life.

How do you stick with your goals?

   Knowing about overwhelm, vagueness, and measurability is an important first step to overcoming those obstacles. But what can you do to ensure you actually achieve your goals? 

   To face overwhelm, you need to ensure you only have a few goals at a time. And these goals need to be ambitious, but achievable, in the time frame you allow. If there is no way you can achieve in that time frame, perhaps you need to allocate more resources to working on it, or shrink the goal, or extend the time frame. Keeping the goals in sight, yet achievable, will prevent some of the overwhelm. And finally, you need a contingency plan. It is easy to work at a goal when the sun is shining and you have nothing but free time. But what are you going to do when life gets busy, when things aren’t going your way? Knowing how you will adapt to life’s uncertainties greatly increases your chance at success.

   How else do you increase your chance at success? Specificity. You need to know exactly what you want to accomplish, and how you plan to get there. By getting specific in your goal, often you will also uncover the action plan that helps you get there. This action plan can be measured, and you can track and evaluate your progress even before you reach the prize. Specificity, being specific about your goal, clears up your vague intentions and provides you an action plan with which to measure progress. This clarity will set you up with the optimal chance of achieving your goals and resolutions.

   As you set your New Year’s Resolutions, or any other goal, make sure you are ready to combat overwhelm, vagueness, and measurability. By being specific in what you want to achieve, and building a contingency plan for when things go wrong, you will be well prepared to crush your next goals.