If you’ve ever set a resolution, you might relate to some of the following statistics.
- Only half of Americans set New Year’s resolutions.
- By the end of the first month, more than forty percent have abandoned their resolution.
- By the time we hit mid-year, sixty percent have given up.
- Less than ten percent of people who set resolutions actually achieve them.
- The average person is said to have made the same resolution ten times.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve committed all of these infractions. Year after year I vowed to make big changes and none of them stuck. I felt frustrated and my hope was beginning to dwindle. I knew that there had to be a better way.
Then one day I began setting goals. At the time, I didn’t realize what I was doing. I was simply setting targets and deadlines for things I wanted to accomplish with my finances and health.
Once I began to see that I was making progress through a series of small wins, I was more motivated than ever to keep working toward my goals. I found a strategy that worked and created more goals. Everything was going great until the year I failed.
In that moment, I realized that there was more to setting and achieving goals than following a SMART acronym. I realized that goal setting isn’t a one-size-fits-all formula. As I was growing and changing, so was my relationship with my goals. I discovered that most of the advice on goal setting doesn’t address these nuances.
So I created my own resource, Resolution Reboot – A 30 Day Plan To: Rediscover Your Dreams, Set Attainable Goals, and Start Creating a Live You Love!
This comprehensive ebook will help you dive into who you are and why you’re here. You’ll rediscover what dreams and values are most important to you. I’ll help you set attainable goals that will keep you motivated by focusing on small wins. And you’ll create a personalized support system to ensure you’re one of the ten percent who achieves your goal. You can check back here for updates. Or sign up for updates and special offers here.
As I mentioned, there is no one-size-fits-all approach to resolutions and goal setting. These three TED Talks address some of the most common struggles we all face on our journey to personal growth. Before you set one more New Year’s Resolution, watch these videos.
Reggie Rivers: If you want to achieve your goals, don’t focus on them.
Top Three Takeaways:
1. Our goals are often outside of our control because they require the participation of other people. But behaviors we can always control on our own.
2. Focus on controlling your behaviors short-term. What can I do today that’s going to help me get closer to that goal? What can I do tomorrow that’s going to help me get closer? And what can I do this week?
3. Focusing on daily behaviors helps us stay motivated.
What can I do today that’s going to help me get closer to that goal? Click To Tweet
Diana Nyad: Never, ever give up.
Top Three Takeaways:
1. We have a better chance of achieving our goals if we are open to the support of others. Build a team of experts that are courageous and innovative.
2. Find a way. You have a dream. You have obstacles. We all do. If you believe, have faith, can get knocked down and get back up again, and believe in perseverance, you will find your way.
3. In the end, focusing on the dream, the why, and the how got her to her goal.
What do you need to do to have no regrets looking back? Click To Tweet
Tim Ferriss: Why you should define your fears instead of your goals.
Top Three Takeaways:
1. By visualizing the worst case scenario that is preventing you from taking action, you can overcome your paralysis and take action.
2. We are very good at considering what might go wrong if we try something new. But we don’t often consider the cost of the status quo, not changing anything.
3. What we most fear doing, is usually what we most need to do. The biggest challenges we face will never be solved with comfortable conversations.
Where in your life is it more important to define your fears rather than your goals? Click To Tweet
As each talk alluded to, achieving our goals is a journey. At the end, we’ll discover that it’s not so much about achieving our goal, but who we became on that journey.
Enjoy the journey!
Three awesome choices! Thanks Holly and happy Thanksgiving. I appreciate you.
Thank you, Ann! And a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family!