We are in the Holiday Season, soon to have proclaimed the New Year. What has been interesting about this year and The Covid-19 pandemic has been a windfall for many people.
It seems that for most of this year people have had the opportunity to indulge in retrospection and reevaluating of some of their life choices while in Covid-19 pandemic quarantine. Retrospection and reevaluation type activities in the past had been reserved usually, for one day only, the New Year’s Resolutions Day!
Of course, 80% of those New Year’s Resolutions had Failed by February.
What we find unique about this year, is due to Covid-19, we have had the ability to stay with those resolutions long enough to have some of them transformed into goals.
The elusive New Year’s resolution this year as it were, has gone under the microscope, giving you a chance to realistically make a resolution into a goal. To give yourself time and room to formulate those resolutions from ideas into a plan. Let’s now talk about putting those ideas, those resolutions into ACTION in the coming year.
1. You Will Need To Decide And Commit To Making A Change
To have a New Year’s Resolution turn into a Goal does not come easy. You must be willing to change an aspect of your lifestyle that makes way for your Goal to be achieved. You will need a decision from yourself to change your mindset in order to create a true change, and then a commitment to making it happen.
2. Make A Record Of What You Want
There is a need to pay attention to your actions in pursuit of your Goals. Success of a Goal is more likely if you track your actions rather than merely resolving to change a behavior, by writing down your goal on paper or in a journal, because that physical act of writing something down in a notebook can help you keep focused on your Goal.
3. Clarify Why You Want this Goal
Your resolution, turned goal, might be about going into business for yourself, but why? Do you want more independence in your field? Getting crystal clear on what you want and having then documented it, is the best way to commit to making it happen, to achieving your goals. You will want to hone in on your goal once you have seen it in front of you. To clarify your reasoning for it - is it that you want more autonomy in how you do your work or spend your time, or want to make more money so you can better provide for yourself, or is it to achieve independence and financial freedom?
Understand that in your clarifying step you are not just dealing with your short-term results, but what is the true purpose of your goal.
With that understanding of your Goals, you will have the courage to find a way to achieve it – even when things get challenging, you will be able to make the incremental changes that cumulate in achieving your goal
4. Creating Certainty In Taking Action
You want to be strategic in your goal settings and actions because what you are really doing is identifying old or inoperable, or non-performing methods that you are operating from (call them Habits), and you are going to replace them with more attractive, satisfying, and effective methods of doing things. That’s the key to success: to go from poor, underperforming habit systems to something that is incrementally achievable through dedication of conscious fly effort steps, that in the steps you build an ease in doing them; You must build into your plan some kind of recognizable enjoyment or pleasure by using the new process to make your change almost effortless. Your strategic action plan must contain these features in both their immediate outcome and then found within your desired ultimate outcome or change. Author James Clears in his book “Atomic Habits” talks more about this subject of how to build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones.
What I am suggesting is that in your mind, you prepare yourself so that you have no choice but to succeed – if achieving your goal becomes an absolute must – then you’ll be ready with the steps to do what it takes to get there, allowing for your excuses to go out the window.
5. Measure Your Progress
From Resolutions to goal to habit, to operating systems embodied in new forms of habits that provide incremental achievable measured success, will require of you to sit down and prepare a list of important lifestyle changes you want to make and then tracking this progress is going to be key to success (I suggest a Personal Journal). For example, If your resolution is to be healthier, how will you measure it? Is it making a grocery list, buying the food, and preparing a certain number of meals at home each week instead of buying prepackaged foods? Is it walking a block, then a mile, then three miles every day? A reasonable timeline for your goals progress must be set and adjusted, to measure your progress along the way.
6. Keep Going
Know that moving forward on your quest you will have challenges. You will need perseverance, especially in the beginning when faced with a setback, or if you feel that you’ve failed completely; my advice is to go deep within (if need be, reach out for support), but don’t give up. Keep Going and ask yourself, What will it cost me if I don’t accomplish this goal? Will I be missing out on living the life that I have dreamed of?
In closing, don’t merely tie resolutions to a time of year. Start that process of change anytime when you know a new outcome is needed, and you are committed to taking your resolutions into goals and finally into a reality. Learning to set and achieve goals is a great habit transformer, that few truly master in their lifetimes. Achieve what you want this year, and every year, by deciding to shift habit patterns and gain success in areas that truly matter to YOU.