With New Year’s Day right around the corner, it’s time (once again) to make those yearly resolutions. This time, though, you’re going to stick to them, right? Right!
There are lots of good videos out there on how to set self-improvement goals and then achieve them. I chose this one because the visuals were kind of cute and funny. Plus, it included a couple of interesting factoids, like a person “greatly increases” her chance of success in any given endeavor if she can persevere for three weeks because that’s how long it takes to break bad habits and establish new, good ones.
I thought the advice in the video was pretty sound, especially the part about setting goals that are achievable. If I had to guess, I’d say that a great many people fail to keep their resolutions because they were overly ambitious in the first place. If you are absolutely determined to set goals that are really BIG, let me suggest that you simply change the way you view those resolutions and your approach to realizing them. Break the whole thing down into smaller, more manageable units of action. Thus, when you set out to achieve something that’s really ambitious, don’t begin by asking yourself how to finish the project. Instead, ask yourself what the first step is and how to go about getting started doing it. Just remember this Troy Headrick maxim: Starting is the first step in finishing.
Most of the self-improvement videos I watched suggested that people write down their resolutions. This is a great idea, but I’d like to take it a step further. Why not start a Goal Journal in which you keep a daily or weekly log of how things are going? You can write about your successes and failures along the route. As a teacher of writing, I have my students keep a journal every semester. Many start it very reluctantly but then really get into it as the term progresses. Your New Year’s Resolution Journal can be the place where you self-monitor and self-examine.
I’d also like to suggest that you look for ways of being inspired as you set out to achieve your goals. Watching videos and reading books that tell success stories can be very motivational. The more you see that great things are possible, the more possible great things become.
