We’ve all made them at one time or another. Some of our attempts have been successful, but the overwhelming majority of New Year’s resolutions fade away shortly after the hangovers subside and the holiday decorations are packed away. Why are New Year’s resolutions so hard to accomplish? My personal experience points to four main reasons:
- Our resolutions lack passion. We frequently choose ones that are somthing that we feel we should do (stop smoking, save money, etc.), not something that we really want to do.
- We aren’t disciplined enough to carry the resolutions out.
- We neglect to set up a well-defined plan for making the resolution stick.
- We lose our focus on them.
What can be done to increase your chances of success? First of all, make sure the resolution is something that you want very badly. You should feel a strong emotional attachement to the goal. That emotion and energy will help you muster up the discipline that you’ll need for the road ahead. Your emotional attachment to your goal will override any short-term gain you will get from straying off the path. Take time to visualize what you and your life will be like when you accomplish your goal. Do this at least one and preferably twice a day. Make sure you determine what the steps are that you need to take to to accomplish the resolution, and put a time limit on it.
If at first you don’t succeed, try try again. If after multiple attempts you don’t make progress, give yourself permission to let go.
Have you ever had a goal that you struggled with over and over again? Something that you have been working on for years with spotty success? Chances are you don’t have the passion that you need to accomplish it. I’m not advocating “giving up”; make sure you have given your goals several honest attempts first. But if you find yourself continually pounding your head into a wall, it might make sense to turn your body and point yourself in another direction where you can actually make progress.
Tags: Successful Living
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