Be Your Best

Todd Gifford – Success Coach

I really don’t make ‘New Year’s’ resolutions per se. For whatever reason, I tend to make many of my resolutions (aka ‘Goals’) throughout the year as I identify them as something that I need to accomplish.  Most of us do make New Year’s resolutions, though, in late December and early January, and really, regardless of when I make mine — they are basically the same as New Year’s resolutions/goals scattered throughout the year.  Well, it’s April, and how are those New Year’s resolutions going for you?  For most, they are a long past distant memory or abandoned, getting lost somewhere between late February and mid-March.

If this is you, you are not alone!  Goals are tough things to stay on top of, particularly the challenging ones.  I thought I would list some ideas this month that seem to work well for me to stay on top of my goals or resolutions.  Not perfect, but they help immensely.

Setting Goals without Passion
There are times when I will set a goal for something, but it is because of someone else or some other circumstance beyond my personal passion for doing so.  This is a recipe for goal abandonment.  Without personal passion behind the resolution or goal, there will be no built-in persistence.  Pick goals that you are at least mildly obsessed with.  If you have to take on goals that others are selecting for you (like at work), then find something within those goals that you are passionate about, and that really motivates you.  Put that next to the goal or translate the stated goal into your motivating element.

Allocating Time and Energy
Many goals are set or resolutions are made without any thought to allocating proper time and energy towards accomplishing the resolution.  It sounds pretty basic, but time needs to be carved out and schedules/routines need to be changed to address the new goal.  Writing down that clear change in your schedule helps a lot.  When I was training for my triathlon last year, I had to stop doing certain things in my normal routine to make time for that training schedule.  Which leads me to my next point…

Your Goals Should Drive Your Schedule…
not the other way around.  But on many days, the reality is that our ‘schedule’ drives what we do.  It is easy to complete a day that was nearly entirely driven by what other people wanted vs. what you wanted to accomplish.  I have those days myself and they are sometimes unavoidable.  But I generally recognize it when they happen and I work hard to get back to focusing on ‘my list’ of goals to drive what my schedule looks like.

Measuring Progress
As I talked about in a recent article about the ‘pedometer’, it is really important that you know where you are at in relationship to the achievement of your goal, and to keep that progress status constantly in front of you.  A pedometer hooked to your belt makes it really easy to know at any point in time how many steps you have taken that day.  Other goals are tougher to measure progress, but you have to put a system of constant measurement in place to keep yourself accountable to the goal.  How can you make your progress easier to see daily?  Goal or resolution abandonment happens a lot simply because ‘out of sight, out of mind’.  Unless you have created a habit around the goal, you need that constant reminder and accountability.

It’s never too late
Regardless of whether you have let a goal or resolution slip away, today is never too late to get back on that resolution.  You made the decision one day in the past that a particular goal was important to you and that day or the next day you were pursuing it.  There is no reason, even if you have abandoned that goal, you can’t decide to go after it again…starting today.  Maybe this time you change certain aspects of how you approached that resolution originally and create a new strategy.  New is exciting and fun.  Same goal, new approach.

Investing in Success
Along the same line of refreshing a goal in a new way that was abandoned for some reason — think about ‘investing’ additional resources to aid your efforts towards achieving the resolution.  This could be getting more education about the topic, getting a helper or coach, investing in a tool or aid, or whatever.  Notice that I use the word ‘invest’ vs. spend, because whatever this added resource may be to help you achieve the goal, look at it as an investment in your success, not as an expense.

I hope some of these ideas will bring some dead New Year’s resolutions back to life for you!

Be Your Best,
Todd D. Gifford