January resolutions not gone as planned.
The end of the first month of 2023 is upon us. Some of you welcomed in the new year arm in arm with friends and neighbours singing Auld Lang Syne at full volume. Full of hope and optimism.
The first three weeks of the year may have been all about resolutions and new goals for most of you, with your sights firmly set on the success of your hoped for achievements, yet this early it seems your January resolutions have not gone as planned. .
If you’re failing your New Year’s resolutions almost as soon as you’ve started them, don’t be hard on yourself. About 64% of people give up on their New Year’s resolutions by the end of January, according to a 2021 study published in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.
According to a ComRes Poll for Bupa, 63% of Brits fail to stick to their New Year resolutions. Of those, a whopping 43% don’t even keep their resolution for a full month.
You’re likely feel that things just will never work out. Whether it’s in your personal relationships or career development, you feel stuck and unhappy with the way things are and don’t see your way forward.
If you find yourself in that grind, it’s not too late to reset.
This year, be determined to keep your New Year’s resolutions past January.
Any journey worth pursuing will include a few bumps along the way – but by understanding the psychology of personal change, you can vastly increase your chances of reaching the goal.
Your dips in January are not unusual as the stats above indicate. For many, January is considered one of the hardest months of the year, with the post-Christmas lag, the cold and damp weather and recovering from the expenses of Christmas.
The good news is that there are opportunities, still, for you to do things that you’ve previously thought impossible. It’s about you, and your ability to accept challenges and having the determination to break free from your existing situation.
You now need to focus on making February the month to hit the ground running. Here are 7 steps to help you.
Take these steps.
1. Identify the Challenges and what needs to change.
Identify exactly what challenges you face and what needs to change to start over and reboot your life. If you want to change your job, what’s standing in your way? Is it a lack of education, a poor job market, or simply a lack of motivation? Whatever the challenges are, note them down and write down at least three possible solutions.
2. Discover your Why.
Change is hard, and as a result, the pain of not changing has to be greater than the pain of changing for us to really… change.” One way we’re more likely to change is to get at the heart of our internal reason for wanting to. Why does it really matter? We all need big reasons to get us off our butts into action. If you succeed with all your goals, what’s that going to mean to you? How will it improve your life? What significant differences will each goal make to you and maybe your love ones? Come up with reasons that make your hair stand up on the back of your neck. That just reading them would put a smile on your face. Most importantly they’d get you to charge through a wall, jump over a barrier or keep getting back up each time you’re knocked down. Come on ask yourself ‘Why do I want this?’
3. Write Down a maximum of 4 SMART Goals.
It is imperative that you figure out the 4 biggest changes or improvements you need to make. Write these into 4 short-term goals. Your goals must be SMART. That’s an acronym coined in the journal Management Review in 1981 for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.
4. See the future.
Visualise the life you want can help you get there. Really seeing the future “you” are living in a way aligned with your goals can be excellent motivation to get there. You are creating your future in your imagination. Now use your imagination to see your new life, happy, successful, balanced and fulfilled. Picture a day 10 years from now from the moment you wake up to the time you go to bed. Where are you? Who are you with? What are you doing? What’s great about your life? Take time to do this. Create a vision 10 years from today!
5. Create An Action Plan.
Make a detailed plan about why you’re setting your goals, what they mean to you, how they will impact your life and how you’ll go about achieving them. Then write down 4 highly specific actions that you can take to help you reach each of your goals. Be as detailed as you like – the better you plan your actions, the easier it’s going to be to get results. You’re going to have to take decisive measured actions to achieve any goal in life. You are wanting to move from a to b, so how are you going to do it? What are the steps? Whose help do you need? What resources do you have to gather? What skills do you need? Work out every step you can, everything you need to do to make each of your 4 short term goals happen. You can add to this list at any time. Remember every goal has action steps once completed that will lead to its achievement. Get your plan together! Know precisely what you’re going to be doing. Spend as long on this as you need.
6. Work on Your Goal Regularly.
Make time to ensure that your plan is carried out. In order to maintain focus and momentum, you need to work on your goals every day. With the action plan you’ve created you’ll be ready to get started. Procrastination is often our worst enemy. Don’t let this stop you now. You have done every step to this point and now its down to you to charge out the blocks. Force yourself if you have to but tick some items of your list by getting them done. Give yourself momentum. Don’t stop. Whatever you’ve said needs doing get it done. That’s what winners do. You have it within you to be a winner.
7. Review your progress every 7 Days.
A weekly review is an opportunity to direct your life with intention. It’s dedicated time to think about the past week, reflect on what went well and what didn’t, and plan for the week ahead. It’s a chance to get aligned with your goals and ensure that the work you’re doing on a daily basis is helping you reach them. A weekly review changes the way you approach your tasks throughout the week.
Let this February be the time where you rejuvenate your New Year Resolutions. Bes strong, persist and follow these 7 steps.
Good luck to you.
