I Blew my New Year’s Resolve
It’s an unintended demonstration – and a pretty public one. I blew one of my most important New Year’s resolutions, to blog three times a week. What happened? I failed to succeed because I failed to plan. Well, I planned to write, I just didn’t plan what I would write.
To make change happen, to take your goal or resolution from an idea to the real thing, means you need to think ahead, you need to figure out what actions to take before you even start.
What can I do about it? I can sit myself down at my computer and PLAN. It’s time to dust off my disappointment and the embarrassment. It’s time to start again. But first, the plan.
In my particular case, I didn’t break my goal into small easy steps – I didn’t make a list of the specific blogs I planned to write over the next few weeks. Instead, I wrote a lot of stuff at the start but without a plan, none of it took shape into real blogs.
What happened next? It’s what happens to so many resolutions, I stopped writing.
Does it sound familiar? It’s much like starting a diet or an exercise program. It takes more than just a decision to make the change happen; first you need to plan how you’ll make your change happen. Otherwise, it is so easy to stop.
I’ve worked out a plan. Every week, I have to imagine blog subjects and make a list of the blogs I won’t even start for another two weeks. Every week, I’ll think up three or four ideas for blogs a couple weeks down the road. That way, I’ll have time to think about them before I write. And, when I sit down to write, I’ll know what I’m supposed to write about.
It’s exactly the same as deciding to prepare for a marathon. You’ve got your running shoes. You plan to start running four days a week. But did you plan on that storm? Are you going to run in snow and ice? What’s your back-up plan for a rainy day? To make it still harder, what will you do to make sure you get your runs in and keep up your demanding work schedule? With a plan, you can make it happen. If you don’t have a plan, then what will you do when you open your door and all you see is an icy cold?
It’s the same for a diet. Have you planned what your family will eat while you are making changes? Have you planned for diet boredom? What will you do when you go out to eat with friends? If you ask yourself these kinds of questions, if you think ahead, you’ll be ready to take on the world.
The weird thing is, it’s so easy. Once you work out how you are going to make change happen, all you have to do is work your plan. It’s time to get back on track.
2.) Before Another Year: Planning for Reality
We’re wired. We like things that are instantaneous. We’re in a world where we want whatever we want right now.
That makes resolutions pretty difficult. Often, our resolutions are for goals that take time. But, darn it, we want it right now. Instead, we’re faced with doing it again and again week-after-week and month-after-month and that can be tough. Making resolutions happen can get pretty boring. That is why many resolution-makers give up by mid-March.
Making resolutions happen means you’ll embrace the reality of your goal. When we lose weight, it’s two pounds a week – if we’re lucky. If we’re training for a marathon, it takes months of running to grow our stamina. If we’re saving for a down payment, it can take a year or two or three.
All of this means that to win at resolutions, to get to your goal, you need a plan, a timeline and check-points. Change can happen; count on it. We’ll start with the plan and over the next few days, we’ll cover the timeline and ways to keep to your plan.
The Plan.
Rather than dive into a huge goal, remember that there’s more to your goal than a decision.
Break your goal into small, seemingly easy steps. Small goals are so much more achievable than one huge goal. If it’s twenty pounds you seek, then look at it in five pound increments. If it’s a marathon, start with 3 or 5 mile sprints. If it’s a down payment, celebrate each and every $1,000 you set aside. That’s right, the other benefit from taking small steps to your goal – you congratulate yourself for every single success along the road to your goal.
Plan for the gazillion details that get between you and your goal. The devil is in the details. It’s a quote we’ve long heard and it absolutely relates to goal-setting. There’s so much more than the actual goal. So, start with a list of all the things you’ll have to do to make it happen.
For example, if you are planning weight loss, there’s much more than naming a diet. You’ll want to create menus, figure out shopping lists, decide which restaurants will allow you to stick to your plan.
Decide whether to tell others. That may seem a strange consideration but social scientists have uncovered counter-intuitive data. It turns out that those who are most successful at achieving change in their lives have not shared their plans with many.
Prepare for naysayers. What will you say? Count on it, there will people who will tell you that you won’t make it, that it is just too hard. Prepare your dialog. What will you say to those who try to throw cold water on your plans.
With a plan, you’ve greatly increased your chances for success.
I Blew my New Year’s Resolve
It’s an unintended demonstration – and a pretty public one. I blew one of my most important New Year’s resolutions, to blog three times a week. What happened? I failed to succeed because I failed to plan. Well, I planned to write, I just didn’t plan what I would write.
To make change happen, to take your goal or resolution from an idea to the real thing, means you need to think ahead, you need to figure out what actions to take before you even start.
What can I do about it? I can sit myself down at my computer and PLAN. It’s time to dust off my disappointment and the embarrassment. It’s time to start again. But first, the plan.
In my particular case, I didn’t break my goal into small easy steps – I didn’t make a list of the specific blogs I planned to write over the next few weeks. Instead, I wrote a lot of stuff at the start but without a plan, none of it took shape into real blogs.
What happened next? It’s what happens to so many resolutions, I stopped writing.
Does it sound familiar? It’s much like starting a diet or an exercise program. It takes more than just a decision to make the change happen; first you need to plan how you’ll make your change happen. Otherwise, it is so easy to stop.
I’ve worked out a plan. Every week, I have to imagine blog subjects and make a list of the blogs I won’t even start for another two weeks. Every week, I’ll think up three or four ideas for blogs a couple weeks down the road. That way, I’ll have time to think about them before I write. And, when I sit down to write, I’ll know what I’m supposed to write about.
It’s exactly the same as deciding to prepare for a marathon. You’ve got your running shoes. You plan to start running four days a week. But did you plan on that storm? Are you going to run in snow and ice? What’s your back-up plan for a rainy day? To make it still harder, what will you do to make sure you get your runs in and keep up your demanding work schedule? With a plan, you can make it happen. If you don’t have a plan, then what will you do when you open your door and all you see is an icy cold?
It’s the same for a diet. Have you planned what your family will eat while you are making changes? Have you planned for diet boredom? What will you do when you go out to eat with friends? If you ask yourself these kinds of questions, if you think ahead, you’ll be ready to take on the world.
The weird thing is, it’s so easy. Once you work out how you are going to make change happen, all you have to do is work your plan. It’s time to get back on track.
2.) Before Another Year: Planning for Reality
We’re wired. We like things that are instantaneous. We’re in a world where we want whatever we want right now.
That makes resolutions pretty difficult. Often, our resolutions are for goals that take time. But, darn it, we want it right now. Instead, we’re faced with doing it again and again week-after-week and month-after-month and that can be tough. Making resolutions happen can get pretty boring. That is why many resolution-makers give up by mid-March.
Making resolutions happen means you’ll embrace the reality of your goal. When we lose weight, it’s two pounds a week – if we’re lucky. If we’re training for a marathon, it takes months of running to grow our stamina. If we’re saving for a down payment, it can take a year or two or three.
All of this means that to win at resolutions, to get to your goal, you need a plan, a timeline and check-points. Change can happen; count on it. We’ll start with the plan and over the next few days, we’ll cover the timeline and ways to keep to your plan.
The Plan.
Rather than dive into a huge goal, remember that there’s more to your goal than a decision.
Break your goal into small, seemingly easy steps. Small goals are so much more achievable than one huge goal. If it’s twenty pounds you seek, then look at it in five pound increments. If it’s a marathon, start with 3 or 5 mile sprints. If it’s a down payment, celebrate each and every $1,000 you set aside. That’s right, the other benefit from taking small steps to your goal – you congratulate yourself for every single success along the road to your goal.
Plan for the gazillion details that get between you and your goal. The devil is in the details. It’s a quote we’ve long heard and it absolutely relates to goal-setting. There’s so much more than the actual goal. So, start with a list of all the things you’ll have to do to make it happen.
For example, if you are planning weight loss, there’s much more than naming a diet. You’ll want to create menus, figure out shopping lists, decide which restaurants will allow you to stick to your plan.
Decide whether to tell others. That may seem a strange consideration but social scientists have uncovered counter-intuitive data. It turns out that those who are most successful at achieving change in their lives have not shared their plans with many.
Prepare for naysayers. What will you say? Count on it, there will people who will tell you that you won’t make it, that it is just too hard. Prepare your dialog. What will you say to those who try to throw cold water on your plans.
With a plan, you’ve greatly increased your chances for success.
