Hope and New Beginnings

… or How to Finally Achieve Your New Year’s Resolution

Disclaimer: This is just a guide. You need to make your own New Year’s Resolution.

This was a presentation I had to make for our company. It was assigned to me months ahead so I had a lot of time to think about what I’d include in my presentation.

And because it was just a few days after the New year’s Day, I decided to make something related to it somewhat. After doing an extensive search on topics most people talk about a the start of the year, I landed on New Year’s Resolutions.

This presentation points out reasons why New Year’s Resolutions fail and what you can do about it.

If you’re still stuck at this point, my presentation’s text was going to get smaller and smaller. I don’t know why I can’t take a lot of things seriously, even if my presentation involved one of our top managers.

So yeah, Happy New Year, let’s get it on.

Lack of Motivation and Consistency

Problem: People struggle to maintain motivated after the initial excitement fades. They often feel overwhelmed and revert to old habits.

Find Your WHY

I figured this out a long time ago. If you want something, have a goal, and never take your eyes off the ball.

At 45… going 46 soon… I know my WHY: My family.

And before, I always thought that was a corny thing to say. That you should be inspired by your family to do great things. I thought it should be a given.

But at this age and with a wife and young son, I began to realize that it does matter.

Everything I do these days is because of that WHY.

And no matter what I have to do or how hard it is, it becomes easier knowing that the reason why I’m doing it is because of them.

Have a Simple Habit Tracker

One of the things I learned in business school was learning how to keep records or data to help you push forward with whatever endeavor you participate in. since I am my own business as a freelancer, I keep notes on the things I do and where I’m at in my career.

I have various ways to keep track of what I’m doing and the things I normally do become second nature to me becoming habits that I’ve fully incorporated into my life.

Keep a small journal, or a small notebook. Or keep notes on your computer’s notepad. Heck, you can even email yourself the things that you’re doing to keep records of what you’re doing. Or, get an app.

Just keep track of what you’re doing so you can continuously improve or realize that you’re flagging and need to step up your game.

Reward Small Wins

And if you succeed, no matter how small, celebrate it.

Celebrating small wins gives you a sort of high.

A high that you will like to pursue.

Hmm… maybe I’m using the wrong words here.

But, that’s how I feel.

That will give you an incentive to push forward in the right direction. e

Unrealistic Goal Setting

Problem: Many resolutions fail because they are overly ambitious, vague, or unrealistic.

To counter that, you need to come up with SMART Goals.

SMART Goals stands for: (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound)

Specific – You need to point out what you intend to do and how you’re going to go about it. You should be able to spell things out and have it down to the details and remove any reasons that you might not be able to achieve your goal.

Measurable – you should be able to assign milestones or have a way to benchmark your progress. You should be able to quantify the things that you’re doing and assign a value to it.

Achievable – this boils down to how specific you set your goals and remove any reasons that you might not be able to achieve them. I get that you should set your target high but aiming too high will only make you miss your mark.

So to make your goals achievable, do it in graduations. With your goals getting loftier as you achieve goals that bring you nearer to that level.

Relevant – your goals have to have meaning to you. Otherwise, they’re just gonna fall to the wayside.

Time-bound – set a period to achieve your goals. Check every day, week, qurter or year to see where you’re at. But you need to set the time period for that and check how near or far you are form achieving your goals.

Lack of Accountability

Problem: Without someone or something to hold them accountable, people often give up on their resolutions.

Create an Accountability Partnership System with a Friend or with Your Journal

Once again, keeping records is crucial to achieving your goals.

If you have a friend or someone who you can have an accountability partnership system with, then you’re set for life. Treasure that friendship because there are very few like it.

A friend who can help you be accountable for your actions increases your likelihood for success by at least a hundred-fold.

An actual person can adjust their level of motivating you if your performance dips or helps you celebrate those small wins which is very different from just having a journal.

Time Management Challenges

Problem: Too busy or life going back to “normal” is made as an excuse.

Ugh…even I’ve used tis excuse from time to time.

These days, I can’t afford to use it anymore.

So… here’s how to overcome time management challenges.

Find Your “Golden Hour”

Humans operate in peaks and volleys. There are off times all throughout the day. What you need to find are the times when you are at your peak during the day or during a period of time.

In my case, I’m a morning person who operates best when the sun’s not yet out.

I think this is because I’ve been trained from a very young age to be out planting before the sun is out. So, that type of behavior carries over to a lot of parts of my life like when I am most productive as a writer.

So, my “Golden Hour” or hours are between 3AM to 7AM. A solid 4 hours that I am hyper-productive physically and mentally. I take advantage of that by centering my most important work-related activities (official and personal) around those hours.

Set a Timer

Remember that part in the SMART Goals that says time-bound?

This is it.

Setting a timer, or dividing your day in periods gives you a tangible “start and end” to your activities.

Like an athlete, you can dash off at the starting line, achieve coasting speed in the middle and sprint towards the end. And you can do this multiple times in a day with a timer.

An added bonus to this is that you can use your records of the time you achieved certain things as a benchmark for achieving more or better in the future.

Achieve Your Goal in Small Chunks

‘Nuff said.

You’ll probably notice that the things I talk about here will keep circling back to what I previously said.

So yeah, achieving tings in small chunks leads to lots of small wins and multiple cleebrations.

Emotional Burnout and Stress

Problem: The mental and emotional toll of trying to change habits, combined with other life stresses leads to burnout.

Breathe

Things can get overwhelming especially if you set lofty goals or take on too much or too many things to handle.

Now you can choose to continue doing those things, or take them off list.

But the most important thing to do is to breathe.

Don’t stress yourself out too much.

Everything will fall into place the more that you do it and it becomes a habit or the better you get at doing it to the point where it gets easier to do it.

Remove Overwhelming Parts of Your Resolution

And, if you take on too much to handle or too many things going on, just remove them. Take them back on when you have more time or get better at doing stuff where you don’t overwhelmed anymore.

Give yourself a break.

Simplify your goals or list of things to do.

Overcoming Procrastination

Problem: People delay starting their resolutions, often telling themselves they’ll begin “tomorrow” or “next week.”

Just Do It.

It doesn’t have to be perfect.

Just do it.

It doesn’t have to produce the right results immediately.

Just do it.

It doesn’t have to be impressive.

Just do it.

You don’t have to hit your mark on the first try.

Just do it.

Just do it.

… Just. Do. It!

Use the “2-Minute Rule”

Remember time-bounbd and setting a timer?

This is where it is the most use.

Committing everything to just 2 minutes of the activity related to your resolution can bring lots of good results.

2 minutes of furious commitment can lead to great things.

Like a racer trying to outrace all of his opponents as soon as the gun goes off.

Start Before the New Year Rolls in.

I kind of cheated when I started this project. I had made my new year’s resolution months back.

In fact, I started this and my new year’s resolution back in November.

The reason why I did that was to build it into a habit so that it would increase my likelihood to succeed in keeping my new year’s resolution.

Start early if you have the chance. Way early so that you don’t miss a deadline.

Lack of a Clear Action Plan

Problem: Resolutions fail because they lack detailed, step-by-step plans for execution.

Remember SMART Goals?

This is the Specific part.

Break tasks down into easy to accomplish pieces.

It’s as easy as that.

Well maybe not.

But it gets easier in the long run if you dedicate enough time to be introspective and clearly see the path ahead of you.

Only you know what goals you’re supposed to achieve and having enough time to reflect can do wonders for creating specific goals and a clear action plan.

Financial Constraints

Problem: People avoid resolutions (e.g., joining a gym, eating healthy) because they perceive them as too expensive.

Solution?

Make More Money!

Just kidding!

Well… if you can… why not?

Seriously… Find CCost-Effective Alternatives

There are free workout apps, you can cook at home, etc.

Stop making excuses because there’s always a way to get around things especially if the reasons you’ve come up with have a price tag attached to it.

And as the popular saying goes:

Kung Gusto me paraan

Kung ayaw, palaging mero’ng dahilan

Fear of Failure

Problem: Fear of repeating past failures paralyzes people from fully committing to resolutions.

Failure happens.

Its inevitable.

So don’t fear failure.

Instead, use failure as a stepping stone to success

Remember peaks and volleys?

Failure doesn’t necessarily mean the absence of success. Repackaged the right way, it can be defined as the inability to achieve a former standard.

So if you’ve consistently hit 9s in the past, maybe hitting an 8 is considered a failure but if you look at it from a different perspective, an 8 isn’t so bad.

A lot of guys would give their right arm for an 8.

So don’t fear failure.

Use it as a launching pad and to inspire yourself to do better in the future.

Social Influence and Criticism

Problem: a lack of support or negative feedback from friends and family makes it harder to stay committed.

Find people who are aligned with your goals. These are the people that can make you accountable for your actions and help push you forward or in the right direction.

Remember: Positive environments help neutralize external criticism.

The most successful people don’t talk bad about people who are trying to succeed. Successful bodybuilders won’t discourage fat guys who are trying their best at the gym.

I doubt Bill Gates will tell you not to study coding better or come up with your own computer company.

Think of the successful people who you once looked up to. Chances are, they have haters too. But they’re constantly inspiring more people to be like them through their words and actions.

Think of a future where you are one of them.

So, let those negative people in your life talk.

Just keep moving forward.

Just. Do. It.

Happy New Year!

Now Let’s Achieve Your Goal Together!

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