Failing to plan is ... planning to fail

Did you start 2019 with New Year’s resolutions? We’re now halfway through the year, how are you holding up? Research says that says that 80% of resolutions are abandoned by February. Did yours make it that far? If you did, and if you're still living that positive change, chances are you had a plan. Charles Dickens methodically planned his work, as most of the stories he wrote were published in monthly instalments. He knew that if he didn't keep track of the development of his story, he would ultimately fail.

The whole drive for resolutions is to drop bad habits and form good ones, but depending on which research you look at, this could take from 21, 66, 90 or more days to achieve. These numbers are based on how long it takes to overwrite bad habits with good ones; but our behaviour goes much deeper than just habit. Our behaviour is the result of a lifetime of experience of being faced with events and environments which have required a response, as well as combining your personality and temperament, your past and present physical and emotional needs, and deeply embedded neurological responses well beyond your awareness. In short, if you haven’t got a plan then you’ve planned to fail.

We form our behaviours because they made or make us feel good, so they’re linked to a dopamine release. What are you going to do at the end of a hard day, if you can’t do what has always made you feel better? In my case, I planned a pattern interrupt - I joined a gym close to my office, so I have to walk past it on the way to the MRT station. Instead of heading home and hitting the sofa, I now hit the gym.

And then there’s our friend, fear. We know that eating the wrong foods, smoking, and drinking are not good for us. If we choose to make changes, we feel a spike in anxiety as we’re venturing into new territory – and the fear of future loss and uncertainty is what drives our anxiety. If you choose to back off, you’ll be rewarded by a decrease in your anxiety levels. Over time, that avoid/procrastinate response leads to an increase in overall anxiety. When you make the tough call and decide to face your fear and anxiety, sure, you’re going to feel anxious. But once you start making small, incremental steps, you’re going to feel that tension decrease.

The first step is reviewing your accomplishments so far. Get in the habit of recognising your successes, no matter how small. Keep a daily journal; whether you choose the popular Bullet Journal method, or just brain-dump onto a notebook, it will really help you set goals and take action to achieve them. Journaling will help to reduce your anxiety about setting challenging goals. You can even recognise the failures, and reflect on what you learned from the experience and how you’ve grown as a result.

Write your accomplishments down in your journal. Writing helps to transfer from short to long-term memory, so journaling about your goals and successes creates a pattern of planning and reviewing that will make you successful in achieving your goals.

So, how do you achieve your goals? There is no secret formula – you need to set clear, specific goals and then write out an action plan to make those goals a reality. Your goals are your dreams, just with a timeline and action plan attached.

Action planning itself is simple, just follow the steps below:

• State your specific goal (e.g. I want to be able to run a 10km race by the end of April, with a time under 7 min/km)
• State why this goal is important for you (e.g. I want to get fit and prove to myself that I can finish a 10km race)
• Write down 3 actions that you must achieve to make this goal a reality (e.g. write and follow a training plan, eat properly, check my health/progress with my doctor/trainer/coach)

As you write out your goals and action plans, turn-off your self-limiting beliefs. Be positive, you can do anything you want with your life, achieve any goal. The potential is within you; be excited and energised by the challenge. And the great thing about having your goals and action plan written out, is that you can review it at the end of each week, tweak it when needed, and measure your growth. As Tony Robbins says, it’s about progress not perfection.

Finally. We’re talking about goal setting, so keep the number of goals to an achievable number. There’s no right number, so perhaps focus on 1-3 goals related to the following areas: your finances, your health or personal growth, and experiences or things that are going to bring you joy. Have fun with your goal setting. If you enter into coaching with me, we’ll regularly review where you are with your goals and my mission is to keep you on track.