FIVE STEPS TO ACHIEVING YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

The end of the year is a fantastic opportunity for change. We tend to be more excited and open to new possibilities, new challenges, new things we want to do and end up with a list of wonderful things to accomplish in the following year. Astonishing though, approximately only 20% of individuals who sets new year resolutions achieve them.?

You'll find thousands of reasons individuals fail to deliver to their ambitions within three minutes of research on the web (unspecific target, poor behaviours and mindset, focus on the negative instead of the positives of change, etc.). Although I agree with most items listed, on a personal note, I learned earlier in life that I was so ambitious that I overestimated my delivery capacity. It drove me to overpromise, set unachievable/unrealistic targets and multitask at full throttle.

Having a list of desires kept the excitement high but hardly achieved a sense of fulfilment. It allowed me to jump around tasks, giving me a false sense of progress. I have never met anyone capable of learning five languages parallel to an undergraduate course, but somehow I wrongly and painfully thought I could. I was a determined and disciplined individual but overcompensated the lack of dedication and focus by allowing myself to wander around objectives. Furthermore, a lack of a specific target made it challenging to say if I had met a given target, e.g. setting a target to study Spanish instead of having a conversation in Spanish gave me plenty of room to consider it a task accomplished.

There are so much behind setting a new year resolution that it can get quickly and unnecessarily overcomplicated, and that's not the aim here. This article gives you a simple process to successfully establish a SMART target and add yourself to the 20% group.

FIVE STEPS TO ACHIEVING YOUR NEW YEAR RESOLUTION

1 - List 10 objectives for 2022

Challenging yourself to find unconstrained ten things to do in 2022 will push and help you uncover things initially thought were not meant for you. Remember, you are in a constraint-free environment, so think outside the box and consider everything you want to achieve.

Remember to be as specific as possible. Creating a SMART objective with clear milestones will help you check if you are on the right path, e.g. lose eight kilos by Aug 2022, one kilo per month.

2 - Rank them in order of priority (1 = high, 10 = low)

Every item on your list should somehow contribute to your life journey, be it a contribution towards your family, academic or work life. You'll find that some are more important than others, and you must rank them in order of priority, considering the benefits they would bring you.

3 - List all the things you'll stop doing right away

One of the most searched terms on Google is "how to manage time". I hate to break this up to you, but there is no such thing as time management. Time is unmanageable; there is not a single thing you can do to stop its flow. You can't manage time, but you can decide what you have influence over and would keep you awake at night.?

To do or not to do, that's the real question. More important than deciding what you want to do, is deciding what not to, and this list tends to be much larger. As mentioned earlier, I have no intention of overcomplicating things, but you should think about the activities you are carrying out that adds no value to your life objectives. A quick win would be to start looking at the time spent on social media.

Once you decide what not to do, you must be utterly categorical. Do not spend time on these things anymore. Spending time on things that add no value to you is an easy way to lose track, procrastinate and jeopardise achieving your objectives.

4 - Eliminate the objectives from 3 to 10

Yes, you read it right. Eliminate off your list all items from 3 to 10. You are now adding these items to the list of things you are not doing this year.

Think about all the time you have now to elaborate on the first two items of your list. You have a list of things you are not doing anymore, which should free you to focus on what is essential: items 1 and 2 of your list.

5 - Laser focus on the first two

That's it. There isn't much more to elaborate on this topic. Absolute laser focus on the first two items of your list.?

By following this approach, you increase the chances of achieving your objectives and developing a sense of self-belief that you can accomplish even more challenging goals. Be disciplined, take yourself seriously, and thank yourself by the end of the year.