How to Create and Design a New Year Resolution that Works, so You can Celebrate at the End of the Year.

Happy new year.

How has last year been for you? I hope its been supper great and how has this new year started for you?

I wish you the best, this year I want you to differentiate your self, be valuable and live your life as a love story. I am optimistic this will be your best year ever.

One very important and popular activity that is often unfortunately treated as traditional and routine is “Setting New Year Resolutions”.

I am a believer in dreams, no matter how small and I believe resolutions are dreams that when consciously crafted and religiously implemented could make a difference in our lives.

New year resolutions are ways of intentionally designing our lives so we don’t live on free wheel opportunism and leave our lives to chance.

Fact is, most of the good things that happen to us don’t happen by accident. We all have to design our lives and be intentional about all things we do. It always takes a level of initiative from us to achieve success in any endeavour.

Getting to the end of this past year and from now to the end of the first quarter- there about – of the year, many people will be indulging in retrospection and re-evaluating some of their life choices and perhaps towards improving or reinventing their lives.

New Year’s resolutions are the perfect opportunities for all those who have failed to start making the changes that they said they would to give themselves a second chance and for those who were successful; will dream of doing more and gaining more than they did last year..

The problem with new year resolutions is that most people forget their resolutions half way through the year and switch over to other things, get overwhelmed with the struggles, frustrations and stress of this life.

Fortunately you have the power to make your year better by thinking more about who you are, what you do and how to impact the world with it. It all starts with planning and that plan can be your new year resolution.

Follow these steps and your new year resolution will work for you more than that of the past years.

1. Undertake a situational analysis: We all have to get introspective and evaluate what happened last year. we have to undertake this audit of last year to see what went well and what didn’t. This analysis ought to be all inclusive; looking at all spheres of our lives; work, family life, health, education and continues professional development, spiritual, societal and other relevant areas.
2. Be thankful and grateful: Celebrate and reward your self for the successes you have chalked last year. Do something for your self. Give your self a nice treat. You could get your self a gift of something you have always wanted.
3. Mark your regrets: Literally beat your self up for what you know you have done wrong last year. Importantly, do not blame others for all that went wrong. Do not tell your self “you didn’t get that promotion, that job, started your own business because there was no money, enough time, government didn’t create the enabling environment, your husband, your children or your boss couldn’t permit you. Put all the blame on your self. If you are that emotional, you can cry all you can about it. You could deny your self of some things you like. its is a good healing process and a way of starting afresh.
4. Dream Bigger: Pick your self up and focus on the future. Think of the new year as clean canvas or a blank sheet that you are ready to paint on and everything and anything is possible. Avoid all limiting factors, thoughts and tendencies that will prevent you from achieving your new year resolution. Ask your self, “Where do I go from here?” “what should I get right this year. Imagine your life and your career, this year in a very positive way. Ask yourself; “wouldn’t it be cool if I own the business I always wanted to?, What will the feeling be like if I got that promotion? that contract, or got married this year.
5. Make the resolution: We all get overwhelmed with the actual resolution and sometimes we are influenced by what other people’s resolutions are, or what they wanted from us, what society expects of us and mostly the conditions in which we are. However, it is important that you do not set goals you cannot achieve and never set a resolution that is a mirage. There are three types of goals that we need to note; There are those that are within our comfort zone and we could achieve them without a blink of an eye, this is not the type of resolution you want to make or else you will always rejoice at the end of the year, thinking you have arrived or even exceeded your target- which is good – but the bad news is that you will still be marking time. There are goals that are set within our discomfort zones. These goals pushes us to work harder and we may perform at our optimum best. these are goals you want for as your new year resolution. The no go areas when thinking of new year resolutions and any kind of goal setting is to set goals that fall within your delusional zone. These becomes a mirage at the end of the year and you will regret and tell your self; “only if I had all the whole team on my side, only if i had lots of money, only if government had created the enabling environment”. Seriously, you don’t want this for your self.Be specific, measurable, archivable realistic and time bound with your goals. People who set so many goals do not achieve them. A man who chases two rabbits catches neither. Less is more. Think about these.
6. Impact the world: Think about the dent that you can live on the universe with your new year resolution. It is important not to be too personal with your goals. It shouldn’t be just about you alone. Have a social responsibility angle to your new year resolution. What this does is that you become indebted to society and have the feeling that the world depends on you and you owe people the responsibility to achieve what you said you will. For instance if your new year resolution is to start an education business and you make it a social enterprise that will make a difference in the life of deprived children in rural under-served communities, you work harder to achieve this because these children’s lives and future are literally in your hands.
7. Set Time lines and Take Action: Treat your new year resolution as a project that requires to be divided into small chunks of action areas with core deliverables, key performance indicators, and critical paths. Month by month, Week by week, day by day what tactics and actions will you put in place and have to undertake to get to the desired, ultimate destination. Without these, we become overwhelmed and at the end of the year, we cry about how short the year was and how time couldn’t allow us to do all we wished. Act on your goals. For instance, if at the end of the year you want to quit your day job and start a business, Month one to twelve will have to be filled with activities and deliverables towards leaving your day job and starting your own.
8. Evaluate and Control: So you can measure your performance at the end of the year, bring people you love and people who care about your development into your resolution, let them know what your new year resolution is, so they can serve as checks and balances for you, be accountable to these people and allow them to critique, scrutinise and bring you back on track if you are backsliding and becoming lazy or complacent.
9. Start over again: Start from point one the next year when setting your new year resolution and your life will never be the same.

This is to living a more purposeful life, living your dreams and living a dent on the universe. I would love to hear from you along the way. Ignite your personal brand power and shine to the world.

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