How to follow through on your new year resolutions | The Magic Formula for 2022...
Around this time of the year there are thousands of people who start recapping the past year and listing what went good and what not so good. In conclusion of that they set themselves new year resolutions for the next year. But as so often those resolutions carry on till January or February and then they get neglected.
The question now, is there a best practise to set and achieve your new year resolutions and could there be a way which makes it super easy? That's exactly what I'm going to break down in this post.
No magic pill...
Unfortunately there is no easy way or magic pill, which makes all your goals for 2022 come to reality. I'm truly sorry if I destroyed your wishful thinking right there but this is the harsh truth. :)
Nevertheless there are some amazing methods which can help you make 2022 the year you would have wished to have in 2021.
Some techniques to accomplish your goals that you've set yourself. In the hope that in 12 month you can look back at a successful year and be proud of what you have accomplished.
That would be amazing, wouldn't it? So let's get started!
The two key principles
As smart and strong you might be, opening a solid door without a key is not possible. Same goes for your new year resolutions. You need some key factors to get started with. Without those there is no point of even trying.
But what are those key factors?
To put it simple those two keys are Motivation and Strategy. Motivation makes sure you keep on going and the strategy that you're going into the right direction. Sounds easy but in reality its harder then it looks.
But if it would be easy everybody would do it ;)
So let's start with the strategy:
In the first point you'll need some momentum to get you started. With momentum I mean some initial motivation that gets you moving in the first place. The fact that a new year is coming will be enough momentum for most of you. Despite this I wanted to address, that you don't need a new year to create a new you.
If you wan't things to change you have to change. - Jim Rohn
So don't just wait for a new year to come around, if you really want to change make it now!
If you want to know more about why we humans even want to change and not just sit around and do nothing you can read my article linked down below.
Now that you found your momentum to get you started, we have to specify your goal and what you want to achieve in 2022.
Focus on one thing only!
In that goal setting process it's very important that you just set ONE GOAL for yourself. Just focus on one thing and one thing only. Don't even try to write a second goal down.
Why is that?
How many times have you kept your new year resolutions in the past? And that's my point. Why bothering to write down more if you can't even get one thing done in the first place :)
So focus on one thing. Take that as your goal and once achieved you can move on and think about the next one.
And like that we already come to the next point.
Now that you have set your goal we have to make sure that you stick to it. That's what the next part is all about.
Specify your goal and build a habit that you can continue
Most people stop here and wonder why they never follow through on their resolutions. But this and the next step are in my opinion the most valuable and crucial ones. So pay attention.
You now have to get specific with the goal you have set yourself and write it down. The important step is to be specific! Don't write:
- "Starting a Blog"
- "Getting in Shape"
- "Read more"
Instead try following:
- Open a Homepage, design it and work on it every day for 15 minutes to build a Blog out of it.
- Go to the Gym at least 3 times a week to lose 5 kg of weight.
- Read every day for 15 minutes and start with the book "The magic of thinking big"
See what I've done there. It's very important that you're not just setting your goals but also write down what you have to do to achieve it.
The actions to achieve the goal must be something you can see yourself in every day. For example, don't set your goal to be something like
- "Go to the Gym 6 days a week and just eat healthy food all the time! Read all the Bodybuilder-books to make a perfect blueprint for success!"
Thats way to overwhelming and you will never have the motivation to even start. Make it easy and make it so, that you can see yourself doing it for a whole year.
Taking the same example as listed above, it could sound something like that:
- Go to the Gym 4 times a week and just train one Muscle for 20 minutes.
Monday 20 minutes biceps
Tuesday 20 minutes triceps
.....
Specify your goal that you're not overwhelmed by it and can see yourself pushing through on it.
If necessary start with Baby-steps like "go to the gym once a week for any exercise you like" but be sure that you can follow through with it.
Enjoy the process!
The next common mistake a lot of people make is to focus solely on the goal. Yes, your goal is important. But when you only focus on the goal you won't have any motivation left in February or March and you'll end up quitting.
The goal itself is not enough motivation to pull through. So we need to have some other driving factors that keep us moving.
This is where the process comes into play. You have to learn to enjoy the process!
A lot of you now might be thinking, "How should I enjoy to go to the Gym.. that isn't fun at all... if it would be fun I would have started a long time ago.."
And yes you're right. Going to the gym or whatever you have set your goal to be is not fun. Mainly cause it's connected with hard work and sacrifice.
But you can try to make it more enjoyable. For example:
You set yourself the goal to read more, but it bothers you to carry all those books around all the time.... what can you do?
You could make an investment to buy for instance a kindle oasis that makes the process of reading more enjoyable for you.
Litte things like that that makes it easier for you to get over that threshold.
A second tip is to live in the moment and don't think of the countless hours you have to spend to get to your end-goal. Use your goal to get you hyped up, but don't look at the long journey ahead.
Focus on the moment. Take step by step, learn to enjoy the process and see the results come over time.
And now the last part in our little strategic series.
Force yourself through the rationalisation
As addressed above there will be days on which you don't feel like executing on your goal. Days where your rational thinking tells you "you have worked enough today let's just chill this evening.." or "the day was way to hard there is no point in going to the gym."
And these days will come and there is nothing you can do about it. And there isn't even something I could tell you that would make it easier.
The only thing you can do in those situations is to f****** get your little ass up and force yourself to go to the gym.
(sorry for the cussing and the thousands of gym references 😂)
This is the only way. Don't listen to your body who tells you that you've done enough today and just go.
A lot of you might think "aaaa thats so toxic you should listen to your body..."
"how can you do that your going to burnout in no time.."
And yes of corse it's important to listen to your body. If you really don't feel good enough to go to the gym, then you might be better off if you take a break for once. But hear me out:
If you would always listen to your body you wouldn't be doing anything else but eating and sleeping the whole day long. We're lazy people and you have to break through that laziness.
And no I dont think you can burnout cause of that. Yes burnout is a thing but not in this example. Let me clarify:
The goals you set yourself are things you want to do. Else you wouldn't set it as a goal. If we go back to the goal to get in shape, the practice of working out will make you feel good. You're proud of yourself after you pushed through despite the body told you not to do it.
There's going to be a feeling of joy and fulfilment a feeling of being proud of yourself that automatically puts you in a better mood.
The other way around, if you don't go to the gym you'll feel guilty cause you skipped again and then you tell yourself that you're going to fail again on your new year resolution and that everything is shitty and you have so much work to do and so on..... did you notice something?!
Here is exactly where the two foremen in our mind come to play again! You have to control them! You have to control your negative and positive thoughts otherwise they control you! And all comes back to mindfulness.....
If you don't know what I'm talking about or want to learn how you can control your thought please take a look at the blog post linked down below!
This would be it for the Strategic part. To put it short:
- Get your momentum
- Focus on just one thing
- Specify that one thing and build a habit around it
- Enjoy the process
- Force yourself sometimes (in a good way)
And remember:
You don't need a new year just to make a change! If you want to change do it now. Follow the steps above and you're good to go!
What about the Motivation part?
When it comes to the motivation your basically all set when you follow this blog ;)
Jokes aside. If I would cover this topic here this article would be way too long.
Remember in Step 3 "Specify that one thing and build a habit around it", I told you that you should break it down till it is convenient for you.....
Thats exactly what you should do now. Try to focus on the principles that you've just read. Not all at once. Baby-steps.
The motivation part will be covered later on in a separate post on this Blog. So stay tuned for that.
Spoiler: The motivational part will be a principle I picked up from Tony Robbins :D