By Mark Creedon
Where did my new year’s resolution go? 9 Strategies to Rescue Them
I bet you made some New’ Year’s resolutions.
Most of us did because resolve comes easily on December 31st.
But give it a few weeks and many of the resolutions you made might already be in disarray, compromised, abandoned.
And the resolute determination to make this year the year that you stick to your resolutions has probably forgotten altogether.
I’m not writing this to make you feel guilty over this abandonment.
Instead, it is about the real reasons resolutions and the determination to achieve them are lost, year after year, and how to change things so that this year you’ll get on track to systematically set and achieve new goals.
So here are 9 strategies to rescue them:
1. You can’t achieve new goals or make desired changes without allocating time to do so
One of the big reasons that resolutions never become reality is that no room is made for them in your daily schedule.
If your days are already full, and you resolve to get in a half hour a day on the treadmill or on your laptop writing that book, that half hour has to come from somewhere.
Something’s got to give!
You have to find something or things that you’re currently doing that you can cut some or time from.
To make this a better year you’ll have to do things differently to last year.
There are obviously some things you’re going to need to keep doing, some new things you’ll need to do and a bunch of things you’ll have to stop doing to make room for the new more productive activities.
2. Priorities should govern schedule, schedule shouldn’t govern priorities
Another mistake made by the vast majority of business owners and entrepreneurs is they operate like workers instead of bosses and leaders.
They turn up at work and then they let people, events and interruptions come at them all day and take control of their day.
To have a better year this year you’ll have to wrest control away from others’ priorities and be governed by your own priorities.
3. Resolutions aren’t resolutions without resolve
Only you can decide what really matters to you.
So don’t bother making resolutions to appease or satisfy others.
Be honest with yourself – that’s a prerequisite for success.
4. Resolutions require resources
Almost anything you decide to do, any change you decide to make, any goal you set out to achieve requires new or different resources.
That might be a piece of home exercise equipment or different food in the cupboard, a private work environment outside the office, information, and people.
You aren’t really serious about a resolution unless you invest in and gather the required resources.
Sometimes investment motivates follow-through, too since you’ve expended time effort and money in it.
5. Daily progress
Take your goals, your objectives and break them down to a timeline and to-do list for each day, from now to fruition.
Big results happen in baby steps.
Nothing gets done in occasional big leaps.
I finished my book last year, one hour a day, a handful of pages each day.
Here’s the goal and discipline that are guaranteed certain to move you closer to any goal each and every day: refuse to end any day without doing something, no matter how small, that moves you toward the goal!
6. Who motivates the motivator?
As a businessperson, as an entrepreneur, as the leader you may be doing a lot of motivating of others, but who motivates you?
For the most part, you need to create self-motivation with structure, like I mentioned in idea #5.
But you can also get into a coaching group, hire a business coach, just pair up with a like-minded friend, so there’s somebody to hold you accountable, to report progress to, to get encouragement from.
Any professional sports coach will tell you: measurement automatically improves performance, and measurement monitored by someone else further improves performance.
7. Build up to change
I’ve neglected the going for my daily walk for a few months, now I’m going back to it.
I started a while ago with a goal of 30 minutes and I’m doing 30 minutes each day.
But if I try doing that out of the starting blocks, I would not have made it.
So, I’ve started with a measly 10 minutes a day for the first few days, 15 minutes a day for next few weeks and built up to 30 minutes a day
So, say you resolve to get up an hour earlier every morning to work on some project.
You could start with 15 minutes for two weeks, then 20 minutes for two weeks, then 30 for a month, then 45 for two weeks.
8. It’s not too late to re-group!
You may already have let your resolutions slip away.
Doesn’t matter. Today, tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest, block out a couple hours, bolt the door, unplug phone, and re-group.
Review the resolutions. Pick one or two that mean that most, and apply the seven ideas I’ve just shared with you.
9. Don’t try and do it all on your own
Resolve weakens under pressure, under stress, when you feel your time is out of your control.
As I mentioned above it’s really hard to be successful on your own.
You need a coach, an unreasonable friend, a mentor to hold you accountable.
And as business coach to some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs and businesspeople, that’s why I specialise in.
Do you need guidance, motivation and accountability to push your business through to the next level?
Are you frustrated that your business isn’t growing as fast as it could be?
Would you like your business to be less dependent on you?
Would you like step-by-step proven strategies to generate more business and sales in the next 90 days?
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Then click here now and find out all about Business Accelerator Mastermind.
This community is for you if you you’re a businessperson, entrepreneur or professional who wants to 10x your income, elevate your ability to give, and leave a massive impact on your community and the world by up-levelling your tribe and improving your business acumen.
Why not make another New Year’s resolution and join our Mastermind group and get the advantage of having a coach on your side.
Please click here now and find out all about how you could benefit from this.
Mark Creedon
Mark Creedon is the founder of Business Accelerator mastermind by Metropole and business coach to some of Australia’s leading entrepreneurs – helping them build a true business, not a job.
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