Wednesday 6 January 2010

Tired of Flopped New Years Resolutions? Read This...

Well, it's that time of year; the time when people sign up for the local fitness club, go diligently for the first 3 weeks, then less and less often until finally, by mid-March, they're never seen or heard from again... until next January.

Just some thoughts from a veteran of New Years Resolutions, including, yes, some failed ones in the past.  Fortunately, I now know a few things about the reasons for all of our past failures that most people don't think about.


So here are my top 3 tips for making resolutions that WORK:

1. FOCUS

If you sit down and make a list of 15 or 20 resolutions, you're chances of attaining any of them take a nose dive.  Why?  Well, your mind simply can't focus on all that stuff.  So keep your resolutions to a minimum.  To be specific, I'd advise you to limit your resolutions to THREE.  That's right, no more than 3.  Your mind can't adequately focus on more than that.


And if you're adamant that you have to achieve more than 3 things this year, that's okay.  I understand and feel the same way.  However, you can save the rest for later in the year, after you've achieved your first 3 priorities.

2. DO THEM IN SEQUENCE:

Along with the sin of trying to do too many things is the sin of trying to do them all at once.

You need to prioritize your resolutions and do them in sequence, not simultaneously.  Again, you simply can't give your full attention to a ton of different things at once.  So don't try.  Set yourself up for inevitable success by going after one fish at a time.  Let the rest of that school of fish swim around for now; they'll still be there for you later.

3. MOTIVATE YOURSELF:

It's amazing how many people totally lose their original motivation within weeks, if not days.  Motivation is like food - if you don't go to the trouble of eating, you starve.  If you want to stay motivated for any one goal, you MUST build yourself a steady "diet" of inspiring books, videos, courses or whatever else you can get your hands on!  

I can pretty much guarantee that if you don't do this, you'll lose your motivation - the downward pull of laziness and the general busy-ness of life will take over and defeat you yet again.  For a rocket to put a satellite into orbit, it first has to achieve "escape velocity".  So do you.  And if you drop your inspiring "diet" at any point, you'll quite likely be sucked back into the atmosphere of laziness.  So motivate yourself continually!


There's also a fourth tip, but I'll save that one for another time.  In any event, if you put these 3 tips into practice, you'll be off and running for sure!  So don't wait.

Do you have your goals for the new year written down?  If not, stop reading and go do it now!


~ Dr. Symeon Rodger

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