Have you ever felt that you’ve failed at reaching your New Year’s resolutions or annual goals just weeks into January? You’re not alone.
According to a study by Statistic Brain Research Institute 92% of people who set New Year’s resolutions failed in meeting them. So, what’s the secret(s) to reaching those goals you set forth when you were hitting the proverbial “reset” button?
Here’s an easy 4-step approach you can employ to make sure you set the right goals and are able to follow through with meeting them – bringing you to “mission accomplished!”
1. Set just one to three goals. One of the reasons you likely failed to achieve New Year’s goals or resolutions in the past is because you set too many and made them too general. To combat that I suggest looking at your successes from the prior year. What big accomplishment did you have? For example, if you increased your sales by 20% then what would be an appropriate number for this year? I will tell you it’s NOT to double-that. Start small. Increments of 5% percent would be realistic and attainable. Before you know it, you will have exceeded that 25% sales increase goal. Remember smaller is better.
2. Understand getting to the goal is a journey – commit to the journey. So often in our culture we want everything at the touch of a button – instant gratification! Reaching goals is never actually all about the end-result. A lot of times the real work is done moment to moment. When you place value on the steps you need to take along the way, you’ll enjoy the full journey and the destination when you arrive will feel even more rewarding.
3. Allow for unexpected events within your outlined action plan. Let’s say you decide you want to lose 10 lbs. by adding an extra workout each week for three months. You will reach your target – no problem. But what happens if you miss that extra weekly workout because something unexpected happened at the time you normally would do that workout? Not much if you miss ONLY one week. So, it’s okay to give yourself that extra space and permission to miss it once, and maybe at the most twice. But know that it’s important to get back on track and an exception or unexpected event should be just that, an exception.
4. Activate a consequence or reward system – remain accountable. If you have an accountability partner – awesome! If not, then create a system where you reward yourself or give yourself consequences to not meeting designated benchmarks along the way. It could be that at the start of each quarter you measure if you are to your annual goal by ¼. If so – then celebrate – buy that special scoop of ice cream, take a weekend trip or whatever your heart desires. Conversely, if you didn’t meet that quarterly mark, take away something you value like watching a T.V. show that week and take action towards advancing yourself to your goal in place of that.
With this 4-step approach you will more easily stay focused on how to get to your goals. Before you know it, you will have reach “mission accomplished.” #newyearsresolutions #goals #goalsetting #achievegoals #staymotivated
