What a year. I can hardly believe that 2013 is almost in the books! Were you able to achieve everything you set out to do this year? If so, awesome job! Pat yourself on the back. If not, ask yourself why and begin asking what you are going to do to make sure this doesn't happen in 2014. In this last installment of Life: How to Get What You Want Out of It and my last blog of 2013, I wanted to share with you three simple tips and strategies to make your New Year's resolution making more effective and help you make 2014 your best year ever!
I. DON'T CHOOSE TOO MANY
What hurts many people when it comes to making resolutions is they try to change EVERYTHING. They attempt to become a COMPLETELY new person the next year, and when they have a misstep here or there, they COMPLETELY give up on trying to change and revert back to their old ways. When making New Year's resolutions, you should keep your commitments to 2-3 goals. That's it. No mas. This way you can stay focused on the specifics of what you need to do for those goals and not have to worry about trying to present this image of being a completely different person. You should also try to pick goals that will give you compounding results in relation to each other. For example, if you desire to lose weight for 2014. You three goals could be workout three days a week, cut back on drinking, and eating better. This way you will see the results much faster as they all work together to achieve your ultimate goal.
II. START SMALL
I'm always amazed at how people will try to go from having not worked out in the past three years to going to the gym six days a week for 90 minutes. I've been working out my entire life and going to the gym six days in a week is WAY too much for me. You can't go from Clark Kent to Superman overnight. Instead, start small by only going three days a week for 20-30 minutes. This way you are much more likely to stick to it and won't have the excuse of something coming up, as you can easily switch out your days if needed. If you want to go back to school to get another degree or complete your first one, don't try to take a full 15 hour semester to start out. It'll be too overwhelming and cause you the quit. Start by taking only one class to get back in the groove and discipline of reading, studying, and preparing for class. Once you start to see some success in either the gym, school, or whatever, you can then begin to increase the intensity and push yourself to do more and better.
III. PLAN, PLAN, PLAN
Sometimes, when individuals make New Years resolutions. they don't do the planning to ensure they will be as successful as possible at achieving their results. They think everything will just take care of itself because they said they would do this. Not so. As in anything in life, a fail to plan is a plan to fail. This planning takes place basically around two things: 1. The LOGISTICS of making sure you can commit to the things you desire and 2.Identification and elimination of DETERRENTS that can hinder your ability to be successful. In relation to logistics, you need to make sure that you've created a clear plan on how you are going to incorporate your new activity or focus in your life to give yourself the best chance to be successful. For example, if you are going to work out three days a week, you need to make sure that you know exactly what days you are going to go and make sure that you do not allow ANYTHING to take those days from you. If you are going to go to school, you need to make sure that you have time committed and blocked on your calendar for reading and studying to be successful. You have to think through the different logistics and what-ifs to prepare for them, so you will stay on your course and not get deterred. In relation deterrents, you must identify those people or things in your life that could keep you from being successful and eliminate or marginalize their impact on you. If you have a friend who likes to drink a lot and you are trying to cut back, you may want to cut back on how much you hang out with him/her. If you've committed to eating salad during the week, don't go to your favorite rib restaurant every day for lunch. The chance that you will slip will increase greatly, and if you are able to stand it, you're only torturing yourself anyway. Think about all the things, people, and places that could hurt your chances to be successful and make sure that you do everything in your power to keep them away or at bay.
That's it. That's all you need to know to make sure that you are creating the right New Year's resolutions to give yourself the best chance of actually sticking to them. Remember, however, that you don't have to wait until January 1st to begin turning over a new leaf. There no better time than NOW to begin creating the best you ever. Happy New Year to everyone, and I'll see you again in 2014.
Ken Middleton is an Account Manager at TEKsystems that specializes in IT staffing and services. He is a graduate of UNC-Pembroke and current MBA student at Scheller College of Business at Georgia Tech.
