Setting 2018 New Year Resolutions

Everyone wants a better 2018. Almost everyone makes New Year’s resolutions and almost all of them are the same 7. Weight loss is almost always number one in every survey. The rest include self-improvement, better financial position, working out more, do more exciting things, more time with friends and family and quit smoking. These vary a little from survey to survey but these dominate.

80 to 90 percent of these fail by the end of January

Everyone see the New Year as a chance to make changes, to put the bad things behind you and start new positives. Everyone wants to start the New Year with the best of intentions. People celebrate and try to cast a new light on the New Year. However, the failure rate on all of this is huge. Most of these resolutions are failed by the end of the first month of the New Year. Old habits are back and new intentions are dead. People just settle back into the day to day like they were before.

The 5 main reasons of failure on new years resolutions

First, they are too general. People will say, “I want to lose weight” or “I want to make more money.” There are no parameters, it should begin by saying, “I want to lose 30lbs in 2018.” This is a nice goal. Being specific with parameters helps form the goal. You can read up on SMART goals, it SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, RELEVANT,TIME BOUND. It just needs the necessary detail.

Second, they are not recorded. So many times talk about the New Year but without being recorded it is too easy to just let it fade away, but you must write these down or record them where you can review them. Especially, with the detail from above, review and measuring that needs to be made and recorded as well.

Third, they have no plan. A goal without action plans are just dreams. Knowing the result you want but not what you have to do to get there is just a dream. You must set milestones to break up longer term or more complex goals, next you set tasks for each milestone thus getting a scheduled action plan. The task being a scheduled action plan moving the goal toward reality. As the pieces fall into place success starts to form.

Fourth, you are not accountable to anyone. Lot of resolutions people keep to themselves, they get lost in the day to day. If you share these with others you know, they can be support and hold you more accountable. Often multiple people have the same goal and can be their own support group trading best practices and helping each other out.

Fifth, the benefit of attaining the goal does not outweigh the pain in attaining it. Some people want to make a change but fail because once they start putting the plan together, they see its more work than they feel its worth. This may because they are aiming too high or just are too settled in their current situation.

You have to be honest with yourself when setting your New Year’s resolutions. Why haven’t you started on this already, what will be different in the New Year. Is it just long term procrastination, waiting for the trigger to get you going. The calendar is not going to be that trigger. You have to get the mindset to achieve the goals you are about to set. You have to really have the determination. List what pain you are suffering as a result of inaction and what you are missing out on as a result of not changing. Then List the benefit’s you would have if you succeed. Think about how you feel now and how you would feel if you were successful in your goal. Once you get your mindset focused on success. It is time to start.

So, now what?

You make a determination of your top changes you want to make in 2018. List them, just write them down. Turn them into goals, if these are long term goals, set up milestones so you can pace your progress. From there, break it down into tasks.

Specific scheduled actions to achieve the goal. Record your results, adjust the plans as necessary. Keep on it, anticipate problems, obstacles. Success attracts success, failure attracts failure. Momentum is huge, just keep achieving, the small task wins will lead to more and more. Stay disciplined in the process and succeed.

In Closing

We will continue to build on this with your feedback. We are building a base of knowledge to help people in planning and dealing with life’s problems, feel free to send your feedback and suggestions to admin@actionlognow.com. Our goal is the improvement in lifestyle through better planning and knowing how to deal with common problems life throws at everyone.