Don’t be Just Another Statistic – This Year Set Resolutions that Actually Work!

CSP043It’s week 2 of January 2010. Where are you with your resolutions?

Because millions of people around the globe set resolutions for the year ahead – but most give up part way through. In fact according to statistics, 23% of resolutions are broken in the first week and 45% by the end of the month.

Each ‘New Year’ gives us another opportunity to let go of the past and define the future we want. And wherever you are right now, it’s always helpful to have some tips to help up along the way…

Firstly, what can you do to improve your resolution success stats? Well you need to get committed! We say, “I’d like to eat more healthily, stop smoking, make more time for me,” but really it’s more of a ‘nice to have’ or something we feel we ‘should’ do: The key elements of making a COMMITMENT or a DECISION are simply not there.

Have you noticed that when we really want something enough we FIND a way to MAKE it happen? When people express their goals and then repeatedly avoid their actions it’s time to explore where they are holding themselves back. Because sometimes it doesn’t matter how much you WANT the goal, your hidden resistance will find a way to sabotage you… I’m sure you’ve experienced this yourself at some time – and in coaching we call this your ‘secondary gain’.

To identify your secondary gain you can ask, “How do I benefit by staying just as I am?” Maybe in the case of a fitness goal, you get to stay in bed longer in the morning or you get to continue enjoying your daily doughnut (yum!).

The famous motivational speaker Anthony Robbins says its all about pleasure and pain: When the pain gets bad enough, we WILL do something about it. But often the pain of where we are at the moment simply isn’t enough for us to make the changes we think we want... So we choose to put up with known, familiar pain, rather than take the ‘hit’ of unknown, unfamiliar short-term pain to change our habits.

10 Tips to help you KEEP your Resolutions this year!

  1. Choose something for YOURSELF, not because someone else (or your inner critic) wants it for you.
  2. Keep it SIMPLE and choose ONE THING to focus on. Don’t spread your attention too wide.
  3. Keep it SMALL. If the resolution is TOO large a change it will be all too easy to fall back on ‘old habits’.
  4. Make it WORTH DOING – challenging enough to hold your interest and make you feel good when complete.
  5. State your resolution in the POSITIVE eg. If giving up nail-biting try “I have beautiful nails” so every time you think about it you are reminded what you WANT and not what you DON’T want.
  6. See a ‘slip’ as an opportunity to REFOCUS. What can you learn, change, avoid or do differently next time?
  7. TELL PEOPLE you trust about your resolution and ask them to hold you accountable.
  8. If you have a bigger goal, choose a TRANSITION step or ‘journey goal’ for your resolution and create a firm foundation for your future.
  9. Get COMMITTED and WRITE IT DOWN! Now put it somewhere you will see it regularly.
  10. Use dates and measures to make the resolution SPECIFIC and MEASURABLE – how else will you know you are on track or have succeeded? When we see progress or an improvement it spurs us to keep going.

So, maybe you now have a better idea of why we don’t meet our resolutions… This year, will you make a DECISION to commit to your resolution and ‘just do it’  or will it be a ‘nice to have’? The fabulous thing is YOU get to decide!

And if you want some help setting some goals for 2010 you may like our awesome free Goal-Setting Tool – a 3 page Funsheet – complete with a Summary Page to put up and remind you…

Let me know how you get on – as always we LOVE to hear what you are thinking
just comment and leave a reply below!

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TrailBlazing Women

Bookshelf

Friends and Enemies by Dorothy Rowe
The Mastery of Love by Don Miguel Ruiz
The Five Love Languages by Gary Chapman