Already broken your New Year’s resolutions? What if I told you that there are three small things you can do to win big at resolutions. Imagine for a moment what your life would be like if you had achieved all your New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t know about you guys but if I had, I would probably look something like Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, be fluent in five different languages, and have actually read “War and Peace”.
It’s estimated that only 8% of all New Year’s Resolutions are reached. I’ll let you in on a little secret as to why . . . becoming better is hard. If our resolutions were to eat more cheese puffs, watch more General Hospital reruns, and accrue more credit card debt, we’d probably succeed.
Fortunately there are many little things we can do to make self-improvement easier. One of the biggest things you can do is to make a concrete plan to achieve your goal.
Start by outlining the basics
What is your desired outcome? What are the steps needed to achieve it? and When, specifically, will you work on those steps? Including this simple outline with your New Year’s Resolution will make you way more likely to reach them.
Acknowledge that there will probably be setbacks
Nobody is perfect and mistakes happen. So include as a part of your plan a process to overcome these missteps. Whatever you do, don’t let a single mistake prevent you from working toward your goal the rest of the year.
Make a plan to reward yourself
A little classical conditioning goes a long way. Think of little things you can do to treat yourself as you progress toward your goal. Those little rewards will train your brain to associate working toward your goal with happiness. This will help you stay motivated when things get tough.
Becoming a better you is hard, but with a little planning you can set yourself up to succeed.
