It’s at this time of year as we look back at what we would have liked to have done better last year and what we want to do this year that people sit down and write New Years Resolutions. The challenge with this is that what the majority of people do is to write a wish list of things that they’d like to improve – if they even bother to write them down at all!
Too many people think up a few weak resolutions and tell a few friends. Things such as “I’m gonna lose weight this year” or “I’ll stop smoking this year” or even “I’ll try and get a better job this year”. As we all know only too well, this is precisely the type of resolution that rarely makes it past the end of January! As a side note, you might be interested to know that more people sign up for gym membership in January than at any other time of the year, but only a tiny percentage are still regular attendees by February – even though most gyms now demand a 12 month contract!
What’s Wrong with These Resolutions?
There are a few things that jump out straight away:
- In most cases, they’re not written down. The simple act of making a written commitment to yourself can have a dramatic impact on whether or not you succeed.
- They’re vague! In my post on setting SMART goals, I talked about why it’s important to not only be very precise about what the goal is (i.e. how much weight to lose) but also to set a specific deadline. With no specific timeframe, you sub-consciously set the end of the year as the target, which is way too far off to be effective!
- They are often spur of the moment, random thoughts based on the way the person making the resolution is feeling on that particular day!
How Should We Make New Years Resolutions?
In my opinion, what most people think of as New Years Resolutions is what we in the personal development field would consider as “goals”. Since we should be setting these anyway in line with our desired direction in life, I prefer to think of resolution setting as a checkpoint. It’s a time to review our goals and our direction, but more importantly, it’s an opportunity to reflect on our attitude.
I propose that we all make a New Years Resolution to have a more positive, focused attitude in the coming year than we had in the previous. If we all achieve this, then we’ll all climb to new levels of success in 2010 and make this our best year ever!
If you disagree with me and you’ve set New Years Resolutions this year, please share them in the comments and we’ll see how we can go about supporting you in reaching your goals for the coming year.
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