2 Strategizes that WORK for Achieving New Year Resolutions

It’s that time of year again when the most wonderful time of the year seems to turn in to the most discouraging time of the year.  That’s right, it is the time when many of us will make New Year Resolutions but more of us won’t because of our lack of success and frustration in accomplishing them in prior years.  This year I have some advice that I believe will work for all of us and help us extend that most wonderful time of the year in to the New Year.  So start getting yourself prepared to write down and accomplish some New Year resolutions in 2014! 

In speaking with a few people over the past year who have really struggled to stick with and achieve New Year’s resolutions I’ve learned some strategizes that work for even the most frustrated, cynical, and discouraged among us.  I strongly believe that following at least one of these two strategizes will help us all be successful this year. 

#1  One at a Time

One reason why I believe many of us get so frustrated with New Year’s resolutions is because we try and accomplish too many all at once.  Changing and forming habits is hard—even just one of them!  So if we try to simultaneously change many habits it can be overwhelming and nearly impossible.  So that is tip number one, just start with one.  Pick one New Year’s resolution we’d like to accomplish and focus on it, work on it, and don’t get discouraged.  If we forget for a day or two, or struggle in January, or try but do not see the progress we want to see right away, don’t get discouraged.  We have the time to get it right, and accomplish one.  Accomplishing and focusing our efforts on just one resolution for the year can help us be a huge success because one is so much better than none.   

For those of us who see success after a month a two on our one resolution, we can choose to add another.  For example, if our one resolution is to not eat sweets and we’ve been pretty successful for all of January, we could then add a second resolution and see if we can’t begin to work on both.  If we continue successful with both we can then add another after another successful month or two.  This incremental increase to resolutions is a great way to establish new habits, and be successful.  My only caution is don’t step ahead too soon.  Allow yourself to be successful for at least a few weeks with one resolution before adding another one.  I’ve learned that this strategy has worked very well for many now successful “New Year resolution accomplishers.” 

#2  A Day at a Time

The second tip is to breakdown our resolutions in to smaller time frames and reward ourselves when we have a good day or week.  Too often we view our resolutions in an “entire year” time frame and give up once we notice at the end of January that we’ve barely begun.  Instead, we need to measure our success in smaller chunks.  I recommend weekly or perhaps even daily.  If we can check ourselves at the end of each week or each day and evaluate how we’ve done, it will help us to accomplish our goals.  When we shorten our time frame we can also allow ourselves to have a bad day or two or week or two because we have a chance to refocus and be successful for a day or two or week or two.  And when we do have a good day or two or week or two, we need to reward ourselves. 

So for example, let’s says we want to exercise each day for 30 minutes.  Using this strategy we might say my goal this week is to exercise for 30 minutes 5 out of 7 days, that’s all.  Viewing our goal this way seems so much more manageable than, I want to exercise 30 minutes every day for this entire year.  For someone who is not currently exercising very often, this entire year time frame will seem like an impossible task.  But committing ourselves to do it just for one week or even one day seems so much more manageable and doable.  Then if we do exercise for the 5 out of 7 days we need to reward ourselves.  As we take our resolutions week by week or even day by day (My goal is to exercise 30 minutes just this one day), we can begin to see how our resolutions can be accomplished.  Taking our resolutions a day or a week at a time will help us avoid discouragement and despair and help us achieve our goals. 

I feel strongly that using at least one if not both of these strategies will help us achieve our resolutions this year and make us better people.  Let’s have a great year by accomplishing at least one resolution, in smaller time frames.  I know we can!   Happy New Year!!!         

Help Others Mentality

“Successful people are always asking, ‘how can I help others?’  Unsuccessful people are always asking, ‘what is in it for me?”  Brian Tracy

Based on the quote above, are you a successful or unsuccessful person?  When we shift our focus from ourselves to others, we gain power and strength in our abilities to be successful in life.  I’ve experienced this in my own life.

During the Holidays, this feeling of focus on self or on others can intensify.  Thankfully, I believe many of us turn our attention to others and for this reason, we love the Holidays!  If we can learn to help others first, no matter what time of year it is, we will find greater happiness and satisfaction in our life and we will more fully reach our true potential.

So what are we doing that shows we have a “how can I help others” mentality?  Do our actions prove this?  One of the most successful, liked, and well respected people that I work with has this attitude.  She is always sincerely worried about others and is constantly helping others.  In fact, I’m amazed by her mentality and wish I was more like her.  To my surprise, she seems to always be able to achieve more and get more done than others even though it appears as if she rarely has time to do her own assignments because of her great example in always helping others.  At one time she became ill however our company did everything we could to keep her around and accommodate her needs because of what she means to us and the value she adds to our organization.  I know she is successful because of her “helping others” mentality.

Becoming the type of person who is always asking ‘how can I help others’ will make us powerful leaders.  This Holiday Season and throughout the year let’s try and develop our “help others” mind set.  If we truly seek to do this, we will be happy and successful in 2014.       

Tough Decisions: Making the RIGHT choice

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make big choices in life.  Because almost everything, all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure, just fall away in the face of death leaving only what is truly important…There is no reason not to follow your heart.”

Steve Jobs

We are all faced with decision every day and many of these decision will have a tremendous impact on our future.  Some decisions we face are big and the consequences of them can last a lifetime.  For this reason, I love Steve Jobs’ quote above and have found that when I act as if I will soon be dead, the right way to go becomes more clear.  

The truth is recently I’ve been faced with a very important decision that will most certainly determine my course in life over the next few years at the very least and will probably impact my entire course in life.  As you can imagine, I’ve had a very difficult time deciding which way to go.  I’ve swayed back and forth, listed the pros and cons of both choices, have experimented with both options, and have thought and thought and thought it over and over again in my head, and have lost many hours of sleep over it.  I finally decided I must act as if I’ll be soon be dead and this thought changed my perspective and helped me make what I believe to be the right choice. 

Now from an outside perspective, my choice may seem foolish or dumb to many.  But focusing on the most important things in our life and what we truly want most helps us make choices based on wisdom and appropriate risks rather than ego, greed, fear, or other emotions.

The same can happen for you.  Life is too short not to follow our hearts and do what we truly want to do.  Hopefully, each of us knows what we want most in life, those two or three things that are at the very top of our list of importance in life and then we should do what it takes to have them.  We can’t expect to live forever after all.  Making decisions as if we were about to die helps us see more clearly and eliminates pride, fear, and embarrassment as Jobs’ offers in his quote above. 

So when facing difficult decisions, change your view and know that you will be dead soon.  With that in mind, make a wise choice.  As Jobs’ stated, “There is no reason [for us] not to follow [our] hearts!”     

Changing Perspective

“The miracle of gratitude is that it shifts your perception to such an extent that it changes the world you see.”
Dr. Robert Holden

Did you know we have the ability to change our world today?  We can almost instantly change everything around us.  It is true, and it is incredible.   Let me tell you how this is done. 

Our world changes when we look at it from a different perspective, a different view.  That’s it.  The truth is for the most part, we create the world we are living in.  If it is dark, lonely, cruel, and dangerous than that is what we are choosing to see.  If it is bright, fun, cheery, and wonderful than that is what we have chosen to see.  So much of life is about our perspective and what we ourselves choose to see and believe. 

Have you ever wondered why some people are miserable while others are joyful?  And then the mystery grows when you find out the miserable person has just about everything anyone could ever ask for in this life and the joyful person has very little and is dealing with tremendous hardships in life.  Why is this?  How is this possible?  It is because of perspective.  Again, our life is so much about the perspective we choose.    

So changing our perspective can be challenging but it is possible.  One way to do it is by expressing gratitude.  Gratitude tends to shift what we see and focus on in life.  Gratitude helps us put things in to perspective. 

So what world are we living in and if it is not the world we want, why not?  We have the power to create the world we want by simply looking at things through “new eyes”.  Life is all about our personal perspective we choose to take.  May our perspective be extra bright and cheery, especially during this time of year!