Did you know that less than 10% of individuals actually stick to their New Year’s resolutions? A lot of you might be nodding your head as we are two weeks into the New Year and many of us have already stepped away from our resolutions. I am not a fan of setting resolutions only for the New Year but constantly checking in with yourself to see when and where to apply change.
People do not follow their own resolutions for a number of reasons but the following three cover most of them:
- Unrealistic goals
- Immeasurable goals
- Non-time bound goals
The third is especially important when it comes to New Year’s Resolutions. When we set a goal for December 2018 on January 1, 2018 we often forget about it or push it to the back burner because we don’t create check points for ourselves. The finish line is so far away we can’t even picture where it is.
This doesn’t mean we never set goals, it just means we set good goals. The easiest way to create meaningful and achievable goals is to use SMART Goals. These are goals that are Smart, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. Check out this great article on setting SMART Goals: SMART Goals – How to Make Your Goals Achievable.
Another point that’s great comes from Leo Babauta founder of Zen Habits and author of The Power of Less. He recommends minimizing your priorities and choosing only ONE habit a month. For 30 days focus on one habit that is actually easy for you to do. Let’s say you eventually want to wake up an hour early, then you break this down into small steps that you take for 30 days each. In the first month, you wake up 5 or 10 minutes earlier. You do this consistently for 30 days. The next month, you wake up another 10 minutes early. It might take you 6 months to change to an hour earlier but you will have made a seamless transition that you can carry into the rest of your life, forever!