New Years Resolutions

What are you planning for your New years Resolutions?
Courtesy of www.health.com

“An optimist stays up until midnight to see the New Year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves.” Bill Vaughan

You might think it’s strange to be writing about New Years Resolutions a month before Christmas.  However, on December 31^st, at 11.59 pm, when your New Years Resolutions are about to take effect, it’s likely your mind will be on Auld Lang Syne, champagne, a clock counting backwards or looking for someone to kiss and say “Happy New Year” to!

Where it will NOT be, is on your New Years Resolutions!

There will be some folks who ask you, in the wee small hours after the stroke of midnight “Whatcha gunna do fer yer Noo Years Reso (Hiccup) lootions?” and even if you answered, they aren’t going to remember.  No, that’s no time to be talking about New Years Resolutions.

Darn it!
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Now is the time.  Now is when you can start to look back at the year just gone and decide whether or not you are happy with it.  If not, can you make it so you will be happy with it by the end of the year?  And if you can’t make it right by the deadline, now is the time to start planning to do it better next year.  But not just planning to do it better – the road to hell is paved with good intentions, putting a program in place that ensures it will be better!

What are New Years Resolutions?

They are goals.  Anyone who says they have never set a goal, but who has made New Years Resolutions has set goals.  They may not have achieved them, but they have set them.

There is a formula for success with goals, and it’s not a hard one to adopt.  However, the challenge is maintaining your efforts towards achieving the goal, and that’s where a bit of structure comes in handy.  There’s a blog about it HERE. The old “SMART” mnemonic is still valid when deciding on the New Years Resolutions.

S = Specific.  Exactly the condition and result you expect.

M = Measurable. You need to be able to evaluate your progress and have the progress under your control.

A = Attainable/realistic.  A stretch for you maybe, but certainly possible to achieve.

R = Relevant.  It has to be something that fits in with your life, direction, desires and makes sense in your world.

T = Timely – within a set time frame.  It has a deadline, so you cannot procrastinate with it.

This is the WHAT of New Years Resolutions; deciding what will make your new year better than the last, but HOW you achieve it is a little different and the most challenging part.  That’s where you need a program that will keep you on track. That may or may not involve other people, but it almost always involves a little self-discipline and a routine of success habits that you plug into to make sure your goals achieve the priority in your life they deserve, whilst giving you the freedom to live that only a life with a “Plan B” in place can feel like!

What has prevented you achieving your earlier New Years Resolutions?

Statistics show that only 8% of people are successful at achieving their New Years Resolutions.  49% sometimes succeed, and 24% NEVER succeed!  Why is this?  Why do so many fail?

The dogs viewpoint! www.thezerosbeforetheone.com

Sometimes, they were the wrong ones to begin with, set in haste over a celebratory or reflective drink, trying to fix things that were never going to work.  However, even with the right goals and New Years Resolutions, obstacles still crop up.  Financial troubles, people letting you down, availability of necessary items, resources and even time.

This all requires planning because the one thing we all know is that when you plan something, you need to plan also for it going over budget and over time – it’s called contingency planning!  You need a “Plan B” built into your program!

Things do happen to upset plans.  It can be from your own cause – such as forgetting a previous commitment, ill health, family commitments clashing and lots more.  It can be from external causes, such as the weather, your employer making an unexpected demand on your time, a promotion or other change, losing your job, a car breakdown or a disaster from someone else that drags you in, and so on.

Contingency plans are made to handle such situations.  Put simply, you need to allow for extra resources in all areas, including time, manpower, money and whatever else is specifically relevant to your New Years Resolutions.

Why do 8% of people succeed with New Years Resolutions?

People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make resolutions.  In other words, people with a plan!  These successful people think about them in advance, write them out and set them as a goal.

Incidentally, this is about the same success rate as regular goalsetting!

Why bother with New Years Resolutions?

Because the New Year is a time of change!  A time of renewal.  A time to review and correct what hasn’t worked for you, and to take time to plan ahead and get it right!  The human evolutionary drive (Entrepreneurs Credo) is such that we are programmed to strive for better – we cannot escape it.

However, throughout the year, we are all full on busy with work and life commitments.  The end of the old year/start of the New Year is the one time of year generally when people can take a little time off to celebrate with family and friends, reflect, review their progress and restart the New Year with renewed vigour, enthusiasm and New Years Resolutions that may make the coming year better than the previous one.

Sydney Harbour on New Years Eve
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How do you make sure you can put your New Years Resolutions out there, and make them turn into your New Years reality?

Plug them into a program, a system that will ensure they work.  A program that provides that supportive environment around you that encourages you to focus on what is important, and protects you from distractions that would take you away from the important challenges, of being the best you that you can be, and that you and your family deserves.

Check out this blog on why you should systemize personal development if you are wondering why you need a system to plug into.

If you enjoyed this blog and value the message, please share it and reblog it.  Who knows what a difference it could make in someone else’s life! When you wish to start your New Year’s Program, start HERE!

Til next time, fair winds and full sails.

Ray

Celebrate every success!
www.thatsfit.com

© Life Change 90 2013