I know, it’s unfair to bring the subject up. After all, it’s February already.
A long time has passed since your drunken commitment to stop [insert bad habit], made in the haze of a nagging hangover and bolstered with strong, black coffee. A long time since the 1st January.
Take a moment to assess
But take a moment to ask yourself, how are those New Year’s Resolutions going?
Are you still holding to your commitment to:
- Go to the gym;
- Eat more protein;
- Eat more vegetables;
- Drink more water;
- Drink less alcohol;
- Spend more time with the family;
- Spend less on going out for dinner…
Or have you given it up and slid back into your old ways?
New Year’s Resolutions don’t work for me
I have found that New Year’s Resolutions don’t really work for me. I try to aim too high and change too much. I set myself ridiculously challenging targets and within a few days I give them all up as impossible. And I achieve nothing.
I can set goals, though. I set them all the time when I have a project I want to complete. And I achieve them (most of the time).
Most of the short-term goals I set these days are strength related. But, as you might imagine, I have goals for this blog and for my finances and for my personal development and so on. After all, I set a goal to post on this blog every weekday from 1 September 2009 and I’ve stuck to that so far.
For some reason, taking the grand entrance of the New Year out of the equation makes it easier for me to set realistic goals. Then I make steady progress until I hit the goal, make a new goal and carry on. There is something urgent and dramatic about 1st January that makes me overcook it.
So I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions, I just set goals when I need to.
And that works for me.
But New Year’s Resolutions really can work wonders
A friend of mine works miracles with New Year’s Resolutions. Every year since I’ve known him, he’s made a small but significant change to his life for the better. Four years later, I can honestly say that he’s a different person from when I met him.
He hasn’t had a road to Damascus moment. He hasn’t gone from zero to hero like Hercules
So what has he done?
- In year one, he gave up gambling. That was a biggie. Within months, his bank balance had turned completely around.
- In year two, he gave up smoking. What can I say? He was healthier and he smelled better, too.
- In year three, he stopped spending money on clothes. Now his savings started growing and he learned the value of money.
- This year, he’s stopped drinking in the week. He’s already getting more done in the evenings after work and he’s even started thinking about building his very own Garage Gym.
His persistence and consistency are a marvel to me and a lesson in what can be achieved if you set your goals appropriately (maybe even conservatively) and dedicate yourself to hitting them.
He uses the drama and the finality of the 1st January to emphasise the importance of his goals, to keep track of them and to push on through to the end of the year.
And that works for him.
So what?
So you have to ask yourself, if you’ve not been keeping to your New Year’s Resolutions, maybe you need to set goals instead?
But if they do work for you, then understand how powerful they can be. Decide now what you want to achieve and don’t waste the power it brings you on little things.
For a list of my key articles by category, please check out this index.
Most people over estimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a decade
Hmm. I had not thought of it that way but I suspect you are probably right. Practicing a skill frequently for a decade is going to have substantial benefits…
[...] Another week and the end of the first quarter. How are your goals going? How are you New Year’s Resolutions going? [...]