The Secret to Achieving New Year Success Is…

Are you fed up of making New Year’s Resolutions that fall by the wayside after the second week? Year after year you chastise yourself but it doesn’t make any difference. You just can’t seem to change your ways and succeed in what you want to do.

I love this time of the year because it’s a new beginning full of hope and motivation, but if you’re not careful the flame will burn brightly and then go out just as quickly. There’s one thing that you have to do, one thing that will make sure that you stay focussed and put you on the path to achieving your goals…

…PLAN

It’s no good just promising yourself that you’ll do things differently this year because it won’t make any difference. Soon enough what will happen is that you’ll forget those promises and revert to the comfortable you. Your motivation will fall off and before you know it you’ll be telling yourself, ‘next year, I’m going to make some changes.’

You have to be clear about what exactly it is that you want and why you want it. Once you’ve achieved what you’ve set out for, what difference will it make to your life? You need to start with laser-point accuracy, honing in on the targets that you want to reach.

After that the plan really kicks in because once you know where you need to get to you can then plan on how you’re going to get there. Working backwards from the goals to now. What are the milestones that you’re going to set yourself along the way that’ll keep you on track? These need to be specific, detailed, set points in time.

The reason why most New Year’s Resolutions fail (even the word, Resolution, implies that it’s just a promise. I prefer to call them plans, that way they sound like actions) is because you lose focus. The long-term goal seems so far away that you soon forget about it and consume yourself with everyday life, the same everyday life that you had last year. As Einstein said, ‘the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again expecting different outcomes.’

The other reason you always fail is because you lose your motivation, you’ve allowed yourself to forget why you’re doing this in the first place. Remember the Why’s because they’ll keep you determined to succeed. Remind yourself of these almost like a mantra. Everyday you need to read them, stick them on a wall, become obsessed because it’s only by absorbing yourself in the dream that you’ll ever achieve it.

This honestly works. It’s simple, it’s common sense and yet how many times have you ever done it. You have to make the effort if you’re serious about change, otherwise it just becomes something that happens to you.

Tomorrow I’m going to show you my New Year’s Plan with the targets I mean to reach along the way. Do you have any interesting targets you’re setting yourself this year, I’d love to hear about them. Let’s support each other to achieving what we set out to do. There’s nothing more inspiring than momentum.