We have all gotten caught up in writing those impossible lists of resolutions for the new year. Those lists have never worked for me. I eventually quit making them. At the end of last year I finally figured out what works better for me than a list of resolutions I won’t keep. That’s setting goals. In the process, goal-setting and resolutions were redefined for me. I had to think about resolutions as life changes and that these changes will take time to figure out. Today we're going to look at resolutions as life changes and how to succeed at making those changes.
1. A resolution equals a life change.
When I made those lists of resolutions in high school, I saw them as a task I had to do every day for a year. Once I started missing a day or two (and you inevitably do!), it was easy to miss more days then just chalk the whole attempt up to a failure. Then I had to wait till next January 1st to give myself a second chance.
Now, I see resolutions as changes I want to make in my life. It’s hard to make a life change and get it right from the first try. You need room to mess up, to grow. Let’s say I want to exercise more this year. The first thing I do is choose a type of exercise I would like to incorporate into my life. (For me, it’s walking, just in case you wanted to know. :) ) I then decide how many times a week I would like to walk. I did this last year and started out with five days a week. In no time I saw this wasn’t going to work for me. I live in a state that when it rains, I mean, it rains. So there’s no walking for me on days like that. But instead of feeling like I “just can’t keep my goal” I decided to change it to something more feasible like “walk 3 out of 5 days a week.” I now keep this goal no problem. Eventually I won’t even need to keep track of whether or not I do this goal because it will have become part of my weekly routine.
2. Start with one thing at a time.
Another important tip I learned was to work on only one large goal at a time. I am famous for trying to do too many new things at once. I quickly overwhelm myself and get nothing done. After working through the mentality that getting one thing done a day was better than writing a list of ten things to do and completing none of them, I was able to start achieving my goal of choice. I choose one large goal and write down ideas for how I will accomplish it. I adjust what doesn’t work for me on a daily basis until I find the method that best suits my personality, likes and dislikes.
For example, I have a goal to complete a short book in one month. I don’t know how many times I attempted and failed at this one. But then I made a list of things that work for me. Writing short chapters, keeping the book around 10,000 words, choosing characters and plots that interest me and touch on at least one of my passions, these were all things that contributed to me being well on my way to success this month.
3. Stop looking at how others are doing it and figure out what you need in order to succeed.
This was a big one for me. It was so much easier to watch videos on how others got their book finished than it was to sit down and figure out where I was going wrong. I spent all my time trying methods that worked for other people (only to eventually fail), instead of making a list of what might work for me.
I encourage you to study yourself, because reaching your goals and following your dreams is all about being the best YOU that you can be. It’s about learning what you need in order to be motivated to reach those goals. Once you start giving yourself what you need, you may be surprised at how easy it is to reach your goals.
Cheers to you and your success! If you have an experience you’d like to share about reaching one of your goals, please leave it in the comments below, and keep being you!
Next Week: "Creating Daily Goals Based on Your Long Term Goal"
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