Well, its now 2008. A year full of promise, a year filled with love, health, wealth, fitness, joy, happiness and anything else you might wish for. This is the time of year that people all over the world decide to change their lives forever. It’s the time for resolutions, New Years Resolutions that is. A time of year when everyone, everywhere believes their wishes and dreams will come true. So, how are your new year’s resolutions going? According to a survey (conducted by Franklin Covey) of New Year’s resolutions of over 15,000 people, the top 3 resolutions for 2008 are:
1. Get out of debt or save money
2. Lose weight
3. Develop a healthy habit (like regular exercise and/or healthy eating)
Sound familiar? Well the same survey also found that 35% of people break their resolution by the end of January, but wait it gets worse. Out of all those New Year’s resolutions, 78% fail to come to fruition.
That’s right 78% fail!! That doesn’t give you much hope does it? So, why do all these perfectly good resolutions simply fall by the wayside, year after year? It is the same reason that every goal, from giving up smoking to getting to work on time has never occurred.
We fail to plan, and failing to plan is planning to fail.
How can you possibly expect to get from your current position to your destination (whatever that might be) if you have never ever been there before? That is simply asking for all sorts of problems, leading to frustration and motivations issue. In order for a plan to work there are a few key areas which need to be addressed.
1. Write it down!!
Your goals should be reinforced EVERYDAY, so put them somewhere you can see them (maybe on the fridge or on your bedside table). This will form a constant reminder and reinforce your goal in your mind.
2. Inform others.
Make sure you inform others of your goal. This works for two reasons. The first is that you need to be accountable by someone other than yourself. Secondly and more importantly is the support and motivation of having family and friends behind you all the way. This last point cannot be emphasized enough; the value of support in the pursuit of any ambition has been researched and widely recognized as integral to reaching your goal.
3. Change your thinking, attitude and beliefs.
Your thinking, attitude and beliefs are extremely important as they affect the decisions you make and things you do or don’t do. A goal is nothing without a need, desire or emotional reason behind it. You can be told what to do, why to do it and even shown how, but no one can make you do it if you don’t want to. Do you want it, really want it?
4. Education or knowledge.
At this stage, you have written down your goals (you know exactly what you want and when you want it), you have set in place a support and motivation network (point 2), you have strong desire and need to achieve your goal, but do you know how to get that goal. The plan might mean that you have to buy a book, magazine, DVD, or hiring someone to help you out like a dietician or a personal trainer.