Success is One Click Away.
It’s that time of the year when many of us start focusing on our 2023 New Year’s Resolutions. To improve our 2023 outcomes, it’s a good idea to take a retrospective look at our 2022 resolutions.
If you shutter at the thought of measuring the success of your 2022 resolutions fear not, statistics show that over 75% of resolution writers admit defeat or stop trying during the first week in January. Only 9% of the people making New Year’s resolutions stick with them for the entire year. That leaves 91% with nothing more than good intentions. So, what group do you want to belong to in 2023? If you want to understand how to be successful in keeping your 2023 resolutions and become part of the 9% who achieved their goals read on.
The first reason people typically fail to keep their resolution commitments is they never make a firm “decision” to keep their commitments. The Latin root of the word decision, “decidere,” means, “to cut away.” That means mentally, and more important emotionally, cutting off any means of escape. It means failure is not an option. If failure is an option, we will find a way to justify taking that option. Failure is not an option. We need to be as emotionally invested in the outcome as a skydiver is in their parachute. The deeper our emotional commitment, the greater chance of success.
New Year’s resolutions like any goal need to be written. Writing your New Year’s resolution is the first action step you take towards achieving them. You can’t think your way into right action, but you can act your way into right thinking. Many people do not take the time to write down their resolutions, and the ones that do, throw them in a drawer somewhere never to be seen again and forgotten. This is not a recipe for success.
A better idea is to put your written resolutions in a place where you will see them and read them aloud several times a day. If your goal is to eat healthier, for example, you may want to hang them on your refrigerator or cookie drawer. The idea is to have auditory and visual reminders of your worthwhile goals. Remember, you are creating a new habit and new habits take time. Typically, it takes as little as 28 days to break an old habit and 90 days to create a new habit so stick with it.
It also helps to write both daily and yearly goals. Daily goals, or to do lists, are important because they keep us focused on the prize and give us a reason to celebrate our success every day. How do we accomplish our yearly goals? One day at a time.
Now that you have written down your resolutions, made a decision to place them where you will read them aloud daily and stick with it, you want to write down as many as possible emotional, heartfelt, reasons WHY you are absolutely committed to achieving your goal as you can think of. The emotional reasons WHY you are committed to achieving your New Year’s resolutions are even more important than how you will achieve success. Emotional reasons WHY are crucial because they create leverage on you when you are tempted to quit. Always give yourself emotional reasons that leave no room for retreat. Ask yourself, why is this resolution important to me, my physical and mental health, my family, my self-esteem, my career and my financial security? Emotional reasons are as important as a parachute is to a skydiver. Another way to keep leverage on yourself is to share your resolutions with the important people in your life. It will help you stay committed when a moment of weakness arises.
It also helps to write both daily and yearly goals. Daily goals, or to do lists, are important because they keep us focused on the prize and give us a reason to celebrate our success every day. How do we accomplish our yearly goals? One day at a time.
It’s important to be careful how you talk to yourself. Be sure to do your best to avoid negative self-talk. When you catch yourself thinking negative thoughts immediately remind yourself that you are a winner. The creator has built into you the ability to accomplish all your goals. Tell yourself that achieving your goals is pleasurable and practice positive self-talk throughout the day. We become what we think about. Our actions become our habits. Human minds are conditioned to move away from perceived pain and towards perceived pleasure. The caveat is that we get to decide what is painful and pleasurable. Make achieving your resolutions the most pleasurable thing you do and failure the most emotionally painful experience you can ever experience, and your brain will do the rest. Fake it until you make it if necessary.
Enlist the help of someone who already knows how to accomplish your goal. No matter what your resolution is, someone else has figured out the easiest way to success. Do what they did, and you’ll get what they got.
Make a decision to have fun and celebrate all the small victories along the way. If you stumble during the race don’t throw in the towel, just dust yourself off and get back in the race. Nothing is a failure until we accept it as such. The only way to truly fail is to not try.
If you are committed to your being the best, you can be in 2023 download the mymentalhealth.org app. And use it daily. Don’t let last years unfulfilled resolutions keep you from making 2023 the best year ever.