Have You Ditched Your New Year’s Resolution?

by Kelly Beischel PhD, RN, CNE

Are you tired of hearing the hoopla about making a New Year’s resolution? I am.

And I’m really tired of hearing skeptics scoff about how few people follow through. When recently I heard someone state that 46% of people don’t make it past 6 months, I thought, “Well, good for those who tried and made it that long!”

Yet, I couldn’t help but wonder why 46% of people give up on their resolutions. Or why 30% of people give up on their resolutions in the first few weeks of the New Year.

If you are one of the 30%, all is not lost. 

Here are 3 reasons people ditch their New Year’s resolutions
and simple strategies to get you back on track.

The First Reason

January beckons us to begin anew. To throw off bad habits and begin fresh. Wouldn’t you agree?

We are so fizzled out after the holidays that by the end of December we’re willing to promise anything to anyone. And this is just what we do.

Bad idea!

Coming off of the holiday in a frazzled state coupled with depleted energy leads us to make resolutions from a place of lack.

A place of scarcity. You know, from those “I’m not enough.” “I don’t do enough.” “I don’t have enough.” places.  

Instead, make resolutions to change when you’re in a place of abundance. From a place of gratitude.

When we make resolutions from a place of abundance and gratitude, our resolutions are better aligned to our true desire. (And likely, more realistic.)

The Second Reason

Baby steps or small wins are all that’s required to make serious change. But, nope. We go all in, creating audacious goals. Right? Typically, our goals are too big with too little specificity.
We make resolutions like this: “I will run to get healthy.”

• What does that even mean?
• How will I know if I met my goal?
• What does healthy look like?
• Run for how long?

It’s easy to become overwhelmed by our audacious goals and we give up. I love Stephen Guides’ philosophy.

He states, “When you pursue small, consistent victories, they become bigger victories.” His idea started by making this ridiculously small goal to get in shape: perform one push up a day.
This was his springboard for being in the best shape of his life. He created a goal of writing 50 words a day.

The result? An Amazon bestselling book. 

[tweetthis hidden_hashtags=”#professors #resolutions”]Creating small goals gets you to the starting line to attain what you desire.[/tweetthis]

Once there it’s easier to keep going.

Similar to the law of motion – that which is in motion stays in motion.

I am living proof. Last year, I wrote a manuscript while teaching 3 courses, coordinating all of the pediatric clinical experiences for our school, and running my business. I wrote the manuscript by making a goal of writing for 10 minutes every day.

It worked!! The manuscript was recently accepted for publication. While I typically wrote longer than 10 minutes, the tiny goal got my behind in the chair. 

What tiny goal can you create to begin manifesting your deepest desire?

The Third Reason

We hide our resolutions, our desires, from others.

Saying to yourself, “I don’t want to be embarrassed if I don’t make it.” tells the Universe that you really don’t think you can do it.

Putting negative expectations out into the Universe seals our fate. Because that’s exactly what we are going to get back. 

Accountability buddies make all the difference. Find one. Tell this person your desire for change and how you plan to achieve it. Ask her to keep you accountable.  

In fact, explicitly stating your resolution to others makes you 10 times more likely to attain it. I can attest that this works. Why do you think I told you that I was running my first 5K last year?
I knew I’d only stick with the program if I proclaimed to hundreds of people that I was going to do it. 

Permission to Ditch

You can also ditch your resolution.

In case you wanted someone to absolve you of your guilt about ditching the New Year’s resolution tradition, I hereby grant you permission to ditch the resolution. 🙂

Strategies for Changing It Up

I have two strategies to offer in the event the traditional New Year’s resolution doesn’t light your fire, yet, you want to make some changes.
Choose a Word of the Year

Choose a word that becomes your mantra for the year.

Bring your Word to life. Say it aloud. Select jewelry with your word on it. Create a graphic to have a visual reminder of your Word.

Whatever it takes to keep your word in mind. 

Gently remind yourself of your word when you’re tired. Or when you need some motivation to get moving toward manifesting your best life. 

Your word brings you back to the track.

This is my go to.

My 2016 Word is SPLASH!!

When I’m procrastinating on a project or otherwise making excuses for not moving forward, I ask myself, “Is this what SPLASH! looks like?”

And my answer, (which is typically NO), brings me back to doing the important work to which I’ve committed. 

Check out this great website about how to choose your word. 

Does committing to the whole year seem daunting? Start small. Create a Word of the quarter or the semester. (In fact with all of these strategies, only commit for a short period of time. And test it.)

What is your true desire this semester?

What word would remind you of your desire and inspire you to get to work on making it a reality? 

Choose your word. Get started now.

Seeking Focus and Balance?

Michael Bungay Stanier, owner of Box of Crayons, uses a simple planning tool. “First you decide one thing you want more of, and one thing you want less of. Second, keep asking yourself for every decision you make: does this move me closer to that, or further away?” 

He suggests to examine three possible areas of focus: projects, people, and patterns.

But, keep to one “More” and one “Less.” 

Simple but effective. (Here’s his article on LinkedIN)

Which of these strategies will you try?

Let me know in the comments below.