So it’s January 17th and I have a question for you: How are you doing on your New Year’s Resolutions?
I once heard a shocking statistic that over 80% of all New Year’s Resolutions are broken within 72 hours. I don’t know if that is accurate or not but I can tell you it lines up with my experience with making resolutions.
So with my own “failure” as the motivation, I created a new way of starting a New Year powerfully. It has worked very well for me for the last few years and since I believe in “not fixing what ain’t broken,” I’d like to share them with you!
First, set aside about 30-minutes and get a nice NEW, clean notebook or journal to write in and a pen you love to write with. (New Year’s should be about getting rid of tolerations, so why start with a blotchy, crappy pen? 😉
Once you’re ready, write down:
1) Your Top 25 Accomplishments from the previous year.
Now sometimes I capture these throughout the year when I think of them, but the best thing for me is to look at my wall calendar where most significant events are captured.
Items that you’ve accomplished may include workshops attended, salary increases, weight releases, personal and professional goals accomplished, new activities, awards or recognition received.
But don’t forget things like new positive habits picked up, bad habits eliminated, relationships renewed or strengthened. If you’re not too hard on yourself, you’ll find 25 easy to come up with.
The first year I did this, I got to include belly-dancing and skiing as new activities that I considered to be quite an accomplishment. This past year, I finally took a 2-day spa retreat all by myself and released 22 pounds. Both things I had “resolved” to do for years – finally accomplished!!
2) Top 10 Distractions from the previous year.
This is a tough one. Mostly because we don’t necessarily want to acknowledge what distracted us from our goals. (Also, this list is only pertinent if you have well-defined goals.)
But this is also one of the most valuable exercises because it is a great reminder for the year ahead to not let the same thing distract you again.
I’ll give you an example from my list. Ever since I started my own business, many opportunities come my way. I am very grateful for these and in the beginning, when I was unclear about the direction of my business, I went down the path of quite a few opportunities that didn’t turn out to be right for me. I failed to evaluate them properly from the beginning.
When these showed up on my list of distractions a couple years in a row (they all looked different at the time!) it was a huge lesson staring me in the face – and I was much better this past year about letting erroneous opportunities take me off course.
So capture your distractions. These may include other people, worries, conflicting priorities, lack of organization, or lack of boundaries.
3) The Top 10 Goals for the New Year.
This should be fun to complete. This is your time to plan the next year and what you want on your list of accomplishments at the end of it. This is not the time to beat yourself up over everything you didn’t complete last year. Let that stuff go. Resist putting it on your list again unless it’s something you really, really want to do.
Besides your professional goals (salary, new job, more clients, etc.) and personal goals (lose weight, less travel, etc.) don’t forget some PLAY goals.
My list of 10 Goals usually contains 4 professional or financial goals, 3 self-development or improvement goals, and 3 fun goals.
And I’m a big proponent of the goals being specific and measurable. And realistic for you.
Then do you know the next step? Create some momentum around your goals by getting into immediate action. There is power in momentum. There is also power in speaking your commitment. If there is something you’ve been wanting to do for a long time and haven’t spoken it to anyone – that is one indication that it will go undone again.
Next, find an accountability partner, a coach, or a friend to share your goal with. And then tell them how you like to be supported. A gentle word of encouragement, a friendly email reminder, more regimented support? Everyone is different so help them help you!
Lastly, if you’ve come up with any juicy goals for yourself, share them on our blog and I’ll share with you my juiciest goal for the year!!
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