HOW TO MAKE SUCCESSFUL NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS AND PLANS

HOW TO MAKE SUCCESSFUL NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS AND PLANS

When I coach or mentor people, there is always one question coming up at the end of the year. Should I do New Year’s resolutions, and if yes, how should I draft them to make them work.

First of all, creating resolutions, goals, or plans are essential activities for those seeking more success in life. They help you …

·????????take control over your life,

·????????limit the control others exert over your life, and

·????????begin a successful journey from “Average Land” to “Great Land.”

Therefore, you should draft resolutions, set ambitious goals, and make plans for your future.

The problem is: Most people do a poor job at this. Not surprisingly, more than 80 % of people are reported to have broken their New Year’s resolutions by February at the latest. Once broken, these resolutions will be shelved for the rest of the year and the person gets stuck even more firmly in “Average land.”

Fortunately, there are better ways to start a journey from average performance to greatness.

Here are four suggestions from studying highly successful people:

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MOVE TO DYNAMIC PLANNING

Let’s face it. New Years is an arbitrary date. If you have an idea about how to change your life to the better, do not wait until the end of the year to make a resolution and implement change. Do it right away.

Unsuccessful people often make the following mistake:

They are obsessed with finding a symbolic starting date for a big change program (next week, next month, next birthday, next year). They do not realize that they are procrastinating their journey greatness by doing so. Procrastinating also indicates a lack of excitement and desire to become better at something.

One billionaire entrepreneur I worked with as a consultant taught me the opposite of procrastination. If he had a great business idea on Friday night, he would call me and other people on Saturday morning to discuss and if the feedback was encouraging, he would start implementation work as early as Sunday. Not next week, next month, or next year.

This might be extreme. However, the example makes an important point: If a goal or resolution does not create enough excitement in you to move forward immediately, then something is wrong: either the idea is not good (less likely) or you have an attitude problem (e.g., being a procrastinator, excessively fearful person).

Moving to dynamic planning approach helps you avoid this problem.

Don’t wait for symbolic dates to come. Implement good ideas, better habits, or promising change efforts immediately. This is what I call dynamic planning and life management.

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DON’T MAKE NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS THAT REQUIRE PERFECTION, INSTEAD FOCUS ON CROWDING OUT BAD HABITS AND SUBOPTIMAL BEHAVIOR

Many people set perfection goals in their life. They do the same when drafting New Year’s resolutions.

Examples:

·????????I will not smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol for the rest of the year

·????????I will not eat any sugar or processed food next year

·????????I will commit to intermittent fasting every day of the year

·????????I will work out every single day.

Neuroscience teaches us that it is quite difficult to abruptly change our habits, routines, attitude, and behavior. This is even more the case if they have manifested themselves in our dopamine reward system. This is to say there is some form of addiction to unsuccessful habits and behavior.

In other words, it is highly unlikely that you change yourself from average to perfect just because a symbolic date (New Year’s) has passed. Instead, it is very likely that you will experience a relapse.

Less successful people tend to use perfection goals and resolutions. They fail to understand that they are setting themselves up for failure.

A single instance of failure becomes (after a short moment of disappointment) a welcome excuse to fall back into old habits and behavior.

Paradoxically, such dysfunctional behavior leads to the emission of dopamine in our brain rewarding us for eliminating the feeling of stress (due to experiencing failure). That’s how bad habits and behavior get cemented in the life of less successful people.

Therefore, successful people avoid perfection goals and resolutions. Instead, they set up goals and resolutions that focus on crowding out bad behavior.

Example:

Bad resolution: 2023, I will never eat sugar and highly processed food again.

Good resolution: Every day, I will in average eat five healthy foods (such as salads, vegetables, herbs, or fruits).

Even if you eat sugar on one day, you can still make it up by eating five portions of healthy foods the same day. Or, if your five portions on one day, you can make up for it the next day (it is an average goal).

Over time, eating natural food will become a new normal and it will crowd out bad behavior. You will simply see the positive effects of eating healthy. This will lead you away from eating bad food. Bad habits have been crowded out.

In the next post we will talk about the following two important topics:

·????????Having hierarchical goals to increase your focus on things that matter in your life

·????????Visualization of goals for increased motivation and higher achievement rates.

?(This article is part of my new success newsletter and success coaching product YOUR JOURNEY FROM AVERAGE TO GREAT, which is currently in BEAT TEST. Updates follow soon).