New Years Resolutions have been around for many years as a way to help people accomplish things throughout the year that requires consistency. However, are resolutions really a good way to accomplish things?
Resolutions Are Like Goals, So Treat Them As One
The very nature of goals makes you look forwards to what’s next, never at what you’ve got right now. Over a third of resolutions don’t make it past January and over three quarters are abandoned soon after. The reason? No commitment.
The purpose of goals is to improve from a current condition. Resolutions lack a personal foundation filled with meaning or relevance hence why they may be short-lived.
Why you should not depend on Motivation to accomplish your goals?
There is a common misconception that you must always stay motivated in order to achieve a goal. However, many accomplished people would argue differently. Motivation should be used as a means to start, therefore, you should not be dependent on motivation to help you achieve anything. What happens when you are no longer motivated to workout or learn a language because you no longer have an interest in it?
What Should You Use To Help Accomplish Your Goals?
To successfully achieve your goals you need to be consistent. Consistency accomplishes goals. Being consistent will get you places in life, not motivation.
For successful goals, you must come up with a game plan that’ll help you achieve them. Because a goal without a plan is simply a dream.
A lot of these resolutions fail because they’re not the right resolutions. And a resolution may be wrong and unproductive for one of three common reasons:
- It may be a resolution created based on what society is telling you to change or emprove upon to fit the status quo.
- It’s too vague where you do not know where or how to begin tackling you goal.
- You don’t have a realistic plan for achieving your resolution. You set goals that are unrealistic to you as an individual.
For your goals to be successful then they must contain the aspects commonly known as SMART. That’s an acronym coined in the journal Management Review in 1981 [Read more] for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. It’s commonly used for time management, however, it can be used in setting resolutions.
- Specific
- Your resolution should be defined and clear. Making a specific objective, rather than just stating that you wish to lose weight. To set a goal you need to ask yourself how much weight do you want to lose and when do you want to lose it? Five pounds in the next two months — that’s going to be more effective.
- Measurable
- This may be apparent when your objective is to improve your fitness. Try to document your progress over time unil the can become visible. No matter what your resolve is, logging your success in a notebook or making notes on your phone intended to help you track behaviors will help you stay consistant.
- Achievable
- Trying to take drastic steps, might leave you frustrated or impact other parts of your life to the point that your resolution takes over your life where your friends and family become affected. For example, saving enough money to become a millionaire in the next two years before you’re 30 is certainly not a realistic goal, but investing about 1/4th of your monthly earnings in an IRA may be one of the best plans to stay consistant towards the goal. The more your earn the more your investements increase.
- Relevant
- Is this a goal that you truly care about, and are you pursuing it for the correct reasons? Many peoples goals are no longer consistant because of self-hatred, remorse, or or temporary passion. However, if you build a process in which you think harder about what’s good for youand change the structure of your life you will be able to have a strong resolve to achieve your goals.
- Time-Bound
- The timescale for achieving your objective must be practical. To clarify, allowing plenty of time to complete the task, with plenty of smaller intermediate goals to help you reach your goal. Focus on the modest victories as you achieve incremental progress. You want to create goals considering the long term not short term.
When is the best time to start?
Why should you wait until the beginning of the year to accomplish your goals? You should start your path towards achieving your goals. There is no room for procrastination, It’s now or never. Don’t let life pass you by while you wait until the beginning of a new year to achieve something.
