Why do people make New Year’s resolutions? What is it about the idea of starting fresh and making changes at the start of a new year? It comes down to a few things.
First, we often strive for bigger and better. At the end of each year we take stock in our performance during that year. We examine what we liked about ourselves and what we didn’t like and we decide we can do better.
Second, many people have hope that things can change. Without that hope, we seem pretty doomed. We hope that unemployment and gas rates will go down and the stock market, our housing values, and our paychecks will go up. Beyond that, we believe that we can change. That hope leads us to set New Year’s resolutions with the resolve to meet our own expectations.
Before we talk about what types of New Year’s resolutions most people make, we need to take a look at why is it that so many people fail in their New Year’s resolutions so we don’t become next year’s first victims. William Covey, in his Four Laws of Execution, would say that we are missing a predictable and measurable plan to attain our goals. He outlines four steps to actually get where you want to go.
1. Focus on the Wildly Important: Figure out only one or two things that are vital to your goal and focus. The more goals we have, the more likely we are to fail at all of them due to a lack of focus. Keep it simple…pick one or two areas.
2. Develop Lead Measures: Outline what steps you need to take each day or each week to attain your goal. Spell it out. Just saying you want to write a book in 2011 is not enough. How many pages will your write every day? When is your deadline for your proposal? Your outline? Your first, second, and third chapters? Be specific about what you’ll do to get from Point A to Point B.
3. Keep Score: Chart your progress. Keep track of what you’re doing and how close you are to your goal. Keep a scoreboard in a place you can see it regularly and often. It will hopefully help motivate you to keep going. If you get behind, catch up and stick with it!
4. Develop Accountability: Find someone who can truly hold you accountable for your efforts. This is an important step and one most people would rather avoid. You have to find someone who won’t let you off the hook simply because they like you. You need someone who is going to ask you the tough questions and push you to do your best. Without this step, most will likely fall short.
New Year’s resolutions vary, but in the next articles, we can take the overarching principles and look at some of the most common themes. We’ll examine how to eat better, fight better, and parent better. Who couldn’t use a little improvement in those areas?