How to Make Successful New Years Resolutions
Randy just wandered into my office, as he often does, and made the comment:
I don’t make New Years Resolutions because they’re bound to fail. Look at it outside—how can you resolve to start exercising when it looks like that! Perhaps in May or June, but not now. They should be Mid-Year Resolutions.
He has a point: the weather is seriously ugly today, but I don’t think that’s why New Years Resolutions fail.
New Years Resolutions fail because we try to complete the journey in a single step. After weeks, months or years of sitting on the couch, we resolve to “exercise daily and lose 20 pounds”. Yeah, right…I’m sure that’s going to happen.
No, it’s not. Let’s be honest with ourselves: that New Years Resolution is bound to fail, almost for certain. You know the resolution that will succeed, try this:
Since I haven’t exercised in [weeks, months, years], I’m going to go to the gym once this week.
Now, that, my friends, is a resolution that will succeed! It is specific and achievable, and small enough that know that you can fit it into your busy schedule.
If I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times: the journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. Resolve to take the first step. Don’t resolve to complete the journey, resolve to get it started.
Well put! Another important detail for many people is not to share them (with many people). For many people, sharing their goals is enough to create a little bit of the “success” emotional reaction, and cause us to lose motivation [can't find a good link to an article about it right now].
Lloyd Budd
5 Jan 10 at 10:08 am
[...] comments Following up on yesterday’s post about how to make successful New Years Resolutions, I wanted to add some wisdom from the Agile [...]
INVEST in your New Years Resolutions at Scott Porad
5 Jan 10 at 10:43 am
Lloyd…you’re right on about that!
scottporad
5 Jan 10 at 10:45 am
I like it – sounds like you just created a SMART action plan!
Jamie Shulman
10 Jan 10 at 9:46 am