Day 10- How are your resolutions holding up?

Ten days are up in 2016 and nearly 1 in 2 of us would have resolved to make some kind of positive change in our life once the clock struck midnight on the first day of the year. And losing weight seems to have a kind of permanent hold on the number one spot for resolutions year after year. Those who own or manage gyms will tell you that half the people who sign up on January 2 won’t be around by the end of the month. In fact, only about 1 in 12 people who make any kind of New Year’s resolution will see it through to the end.

So if a lot of people sincerely want to improve their lives, why do so many fail to achieve their goals? And if you’ve failed to make it to the finish line in the past, what can you do right now to better your chance of success?

Studying successful people for a while now, here are a few tips which in my opinion will help you achieve more success in 2016.

Why rely on a date?

Why is January 1 significant to so many resolution makers? Aside from the fact that it’s the first day of a new year, there’s social proof. It’s easier to perform any action when you know you’re not the only one doing it. But if you rely on this ‘herd mentality’ it’s just evidence you’re not ready for a change just yet. You might be thinking you can’t do it on your own, so you wait for the appropriate date to be pulled in by the herd rushing by. Here’s the problem: It takes only a couple of weeks before you realize you are alone and what little motivation you had is quickly fading away. Not an ideal way of changing anything..

Date is not important at all. What is important is that you’re mentally and emotionally prepared to make the change.

Feel the pain

We all have specific pain threshold — that point when we feel pain sufficient enough to make change possible. People who want to make a change have reached their pain threshold, while those who are ‘just waiting ’ need to feel more pain to arrive at a decision to change.

Don’t look in the rear view mirror:

If you’ve failed to follow through on a particular resolution in the past, there’s a tendency to recall that failure as you go through the same struggle all over again. It becomes easier and easier to rationalize why you should give up again. This is all a part of the limiting beliefs we all have and they will continue to hold you back, until you replace them with empowering beliefs.Instead of reminding yourself about how far you’ve come, or how hard your journey has been, focus on what’s ahead. Why? Because that’s where you’ll find your reward. If you’re always looking in the rear view mirror, you’re likely to crash before you reach your destination.

Have a passion

It’s your passion that will help you achieve your dreams by igniting the fires within you. This is important because it’s passion that will help you overcome any obstacles you may encounter along the way.

Have a great ‘why’

Knowing your WHY is absolutely crucial to your success. Your why is your reason for wanting that success you dream of. And quite often it’s better to let others in your life be your why rather than you being the why.   

I wish you all the very best of success, whatever your endeavors may be, for 2016 and beyond.

Be Inspired

Shashi