Resolution Reminders Often Help

It’s a brand new year and most of us are making lists, resolutions, projections and setting goals for 2013. There is something about the new year that spurs a desire within us to start fresh, try harder, be better.

We make these goals in our professional lives and personal lives over the years and have noticed that there is something about New Year’s resolutions that make us start out strong and resolute in our goals to be perfect and achieve all our resolutions.

We tell ourselves that we will work out every day, work more efficiently, be kinder and more environmentally friendly.

We are almost gung-ho in our fierce determination to improve our lives and make this year count. And every year by about March, we forget we made these resolutions.

Inevitably most, if not all, of our resolutions fall by the wayside we revert back to the habits we had 12 months previously. This year, I implore you to be different. Don’t let another year pass by without effectuating real change in our lives.

One of the primary reasons that people fail to stick to their resolutions is because they take on too much, too soon. The period after the holidays is always going to be tough on people as we try to readjust to life without endless holiday parties and no longer being constantly surrounded by friends and family. Trying to change how we live in this period of adjustment often turns out to unrealistic and stressful.

We then end up feeling bad when we fail in our noble quests to improve our lifestyle. Another reason that people fail to stick to their resolutions is that they make their resolutions simply because it’s a thing that people do at this time of year.

My father, who was a smoker for 30 years tried on two different New Year’s Days to give up smoking but failed on both occasions. When he did eventually quit, it was a decision he made on his way home from work one day.

When he got home, he handed my mother the box of cigarettes and asked her to keep them until he asked for a cigarette again. Eighteen years later, he still hasn’t asked for that cigarette. He believes that the reason he was successful was because he really wanted to give up cigarettes on that day, not simply because it was an arbitrary date when people decide to quit stuff or take up new activities.

The key is to have the right reasons for wanting change, the motivation and willpower to see the goals through will emanate from that reason of ours for attempting this new goal.

Instead of New Year’s resolutions, it may be better to simply label them goals.

When we set goals, we often set a time limit for achieving them. When we resolve to do something we may just state that we plan to take up a new activity but may not follow up on that. Let’s take reconnecting with old friends as an example.

If you set the goal of going to dinner with some old friends by a certain date, you are more likely to achieve this than if you simply resolve to reconnect with friends.

Write down your goals and share them with your friends. First of all, by making a list of everything that you want to achieve in the year ahead, you are more likely to stick to them. By writing down your goals, you can then categorize and prioritize it. Also, by having your goals written down in one place, it will be easier to share with your friends.

By sharing your goals with your friends, you may be more likely to achieve them as your friends will ask you about your progress and will help to keep you motivated.

When you share your goals, you may find that some of your friends will want to achieve the same or similar goals and you could work together to achieve them.

When it gets to the warm, margarita-filled evenings of summer, the resolutions and goals dreamed up in the dark and cold of January will be nothing but a distant memory. Therefore, I suggest that we set ourselves reminders.

Friends, as I mentioned above, can act as useful reminders provided that they aren’t too distracted by the joys of summer. I suggest that you set a reminder in your phone that should appear once every three months.

I would not recommend setting a reminder on your work computer, as when it appears, you are likely to be working on something at the time and it would be too easy to just click “dismiss.”

I would recommend that you set the reminders for a Saturday or Sunday afternoon when you are more likely to have the time to evaluate how you have done so far, how realistic your goals are and whether you should add some more to achieve.

By being realistic with your goals and the amount that you plan to achieve, you can make a real difference to your life and the lives of those around you. The goals I have set for myself are simple day-to-day goals such as not using my phone while hanging out with friends.

I will plan the bigger things as they come along and when I feel that I am in the best possible position to achieve them.

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