Goal And Resolution Rescue

by Daryl Daughtry, Publisher

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I’m going to share 3 powerful tips to rescue your resolutions – whether they be for New Year’s or any other time.

Here’s the sobering reality: the overwhelming majority of New Year’s resolutions will fail. Forbes Magazine reported that only 8% of people who set a New Year’s resolution will actually achieve it.

People are creatures of habit and routine and the problem is that they try to bring their old habits and routines into the new year and expect to accomplish new things. It just doesn’t work. If you want something new in your life, you have to do new things to achieve it.

Resolution Tip 1 – GIVE IT MEANING

Getting and staying motivated is incredibly difficult if you don’t have a strong interest in what you’re doing or you see the task as a bother. If you want to make it easy on yourself, instead of having to rely only on willpower, learn to frame activities so that they mean something to you. Be very clear about what you want as an outcome before you begin moving forward.

Make it matter to you. Give it meaning. Assign the expected benefits of accomplishing it. If it matters, has meaning, and benefits your life, even in a small way, you’ll be motivated to keep moving forward. It will keep you interested. The process will be more enjoyable and mean something to you which will positively engage your emotions.

Resolution Tip 2 – GO FOR SMALL WINS

Small wins help you feel like you’re accomplishing something and accomplishment equals success and success is very motivating.

If we focus too much on achieving an intimidating goal, we feel like we’ll never get there. That’s why smaller wins are so important. They give us the motivation to keep us going which, in turn, creates momentum. Small wins can seem difficult at first. But once you achieve that first one, the other ones seem to fall one after the other. You will become more and more motivated and the wins will keep coming.

Did you know that any change you experience is perceived as a threat by your brain and can actually stop you from taking action? The way to avoid triggering that fear response is to make the change or mini goal so small that it is literally impossible for you to fail at it. This is also known as a “micro-commitment” – a small incremental baby step you can take to move forward without feeling fear around taking action.

Small wins break bigger goals into easily managed pieces. They are effective because they reduce your stress and remove the pain that larger action steps represent.

Resolution Tip 3 – CREATE DEADLINES

Someone once said, “The ultimate inspiration is the deadline”.

Most people understand once the time available to do a specific task that’s being avoided starts to run out, procrastination invariably stops. Usually we take a panicked glance at the clock and occasionally rant, “It can’t possibly be that late already! I better get moving.” And so, this is the power of a deadline.

The general pattern is that, as people approach a deadline, they become more motivated and work harder and their level of performance vastly improves. It’s because the human brain may like to procrastinate, but it likes to avoid unpleasant things more, so it tends to adopt more of a “playtime is over!” approach when a deadline is imminent. Deadlines also increase motivation.

In conclusion, in order to increase your odds of accomplishing your new resolution, you want to give it meaning, go for small wins, and create serious deadlines.

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