Do not fear mistakes. You will know failure. Continue to reach out.
Benjamin Franklin
New Year’s Eve celebration excites me. I love watching the fireworks display at midnight and the flow of pleasantries that follows.
The next day most people spend time talking about their New Year’s resolution. I used to make New Year’s resolution, but now not anymore.
I stopped making resolutions because I never kept them.
A famous quote defines insanity as doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting to get a different result.
I felt it was insane for me to continue making resolutions I will not carry out.
On one New Year eve many years ago, I the decision to stop making New Year’s resolutions…
I realized what I needed was to look at my accomplishment, mistakes and failure at the end of each year.
I found a better way to making New Year resolutions work-setting goals.
I now set goals every year instead of making promises I will never keep.
Why Goals are better than making resolutions?
A goal is a predefined decision of what you intend to do.
A goal differs from a resolution in the sense that-you have a deadline to when you’ll carry out the action you want to do.
A goal is a dream with a deadline
On the other hand, when you make a resolution, its like making a promise that you’ll change.
But, you know from experience that its one thing to make a promise that you’ll change.
It’s another thing to have the courage to take the action that will cause you to to change.
The absolute worst way to setting goals is to make New Year’s resolution .
Why? Because new evidence suggest this about New Year’s resolution: the reason most American fail to achieve their resolution is that – they spend time dreaming instead of taking action .
They also lack commitment to follow through on their promises.
Researcher, Alan Norcross and others in a landmark study published in Journal of Clinical Psychology, identified:
dreaming and self-blame as the main reasons people fail to keep New Year’s resolution.
On the other hand, people who set goals, do things differently. They spend more time acting on their plan.
Why? Because the real secret to setting goals is that goal setting is a two step process.
The two step process of setting goals helps you to think and clearly define what you want.
When you are absolutely clear about what you want- you are likely to do the tasks that will achieve your goals.
The real secret to why goal setting works is that it aligns with how your brain function.
Here’s why..
In order to set goals you have to write them down.
The very act of writing down your goals helps to create a neural connection between the emotional part of your brain-the limbic cortex- and the cerebral cortex (the part of your brain that is responsible for reasoning and memory).
That is why , you have a 70 percent chance of accomplishing a task when you write it down. When you write your goals, you are one step to achieving your goals .
The best model I’ve seen for achieving goals is to set SMART goals .
This means your goals must be:
Specific,
Measurable,
Achievable,
Realistic, and
Timely.
When you write down your goals , you can track your progress. so, you can focus on achieving your goals.
Make a choice to achieve your goals rather than fail to achieve them.
Stop making New Year resolutions. Set goals, so that you can measure your progress and make corrections.
It is not too late to change. Start setting goals beginning today.