Getting to Your New Year’s Resolution – What’s on your list?
The New Year is the time to take some time for reflection on change and resolutions for the upcoming year. The question is how do you come up with the resolution? Or do you reflect on the outcome you are looking to achieve? You should focus on resolutions from two perspectives; one, properly define the goal (what is it deep down?) and two, incorporate the specific steps you must accomplish to achieve the goals.
How to get to the resolution deep down
What is a New Year’s resolution? It’s something you commit to do to affect change to reach a goal. When setting goals, it’s important to get to the primary motivation. You do this by asking yourself what you are hoping to accomplish. For example, losing weight tops the list on many individual’s plans for the New Year. Ask yourself, what are you hoping to accomplish by losing weight? If the answer is better health then ask yourself what you’re hoping to accomplish with better health? It works. Ask yourself over and over until you get to the true motivator behind the goal. Understanding the motivation behind completion is paramount to achievement of your goal.
Goals fall into 3 buckets
We do the “getting to the goal” / “what are you hoping to accomplish” exercise with every client. It’s amazing how vast the goals seem in the beginning, but can always be narrowed down to two or three. If thinking of business goals, they can be narrowed into 3 buckets: increasing revenue, decreasing costs and mitigating risks. Personal goals, similarly, can be lumped into a few categories as well: personal improvement, personal achievement and increasing income.
Achieving goals over 70% of the time
Now that we’ve gotten to the motivation behind the goal, next month we will explore how to achieve those goals 70% of the time. We will cite the fascinating study that replaces the mythical 1953 Yale study on goal writing. Until then, get to the motivation behind your goals. What are you hoping to accomplish in 2014? We will see you in January.