Three Secrets To REAL Resolutions Revealed
As we head into any new year, we all tend to have a list of New Year's resolutions…even if we never make a physical list, we have that mental thing going on that says 'well, I'll take care of that in the new year' or I 'll do this in the new year'.
The problem with this is that only about 8% of people who make resolutions ever achieve them. Even more astonishing is 80% have failed by January 20! Are you squirming in your chair a little bit right now? <grin>
So why do we set ourselves up to fail every year?
Three Secrets To Real RESOLUTIONS
Research
Before you say with certainly THIS is my GOAL; take some time and do some research, circle around the goal, and make sure it is doable in your lifestyle. Give yourself permission to renegotiate the goal if the initial goal is too big to manage.
This is the biggest reason that people fail at weight loss as a New Year's resolution. They say to themselves "I'm going to lose X amount before this time" and when that time comes and they haven't met that goal, they give up on it totally.
They key to any achievement, regardless of what it is, is to never give up. If you hit a bump in the road, reevaluate the goal, restructure it and keep moving toward it.
The same strategies apply to business resolutions. Do the research…listen to what you niche is talking about, asking for, etc. before you lay out YOUR ideas for 2012.
You may think you have the perfect new product launch idea but the market may not need or even be interested in your great idea. A great place to start evaluating what your audience will respond to is to answer these two questions…
- What problem can you solve for your niche in 2012?
- How can you better serve in 2012?
Keep it Simple
Many of our resolutions are habit based. How do you can change a bad habit into a good habit in 2012? Or simply start a new good habit?
1. Focus on one habit at a time – this is huge! Bad habits are to break under the best of circumstances and if you are trying to focus on more than one bad habit at a time, you are setting yourself up for failure. Keep it simple and allow yourself the best opportunity to succeed. For example, start a new conversation with one person a day on social media.
2. Start small – The smaller the habit the better. If you are committing to improving yourself in 2012; set aside 10-15 minutes a day to read a book. If you want to exercise more, start with just 5-10 minutes and work your way up. From a social media standpoint, set aside 15 minutes a day to connect with your audience.
3. 30 Day Challenges work great because it takes about 30 consistent days of new behavior to break the bad behavior. This will not only help you break a bad habit but it will infuse you with confidence when you "make" it and you will know you can stay the course. A great 30-day challenge goal for social media might be to increase your Twitter followers by 1000 new followers in that amount of time. You can do it!
Change Your Thinking
I am reading a book by Earl Nightingale entitled "The Strangest Secret" (highly recommend by the way!) and a fundamental principal of this book is to reveal the secret of achieving success. That secret is pretty basic really. I feel like I am revealing the end of a movie you haven't watched yet by sharing this with you but here goes…
The secret to success is this…THOUGHTS ARE THINGS!
What you think about is what has a chance to become real in your life. Every action in your life and your business starts with a thought. Start training yourself to control your thoughts. Every time that ole 'fear' creeps up and starts whispering in your ear, making you doubt yourself; consciously stop what you are doing for a minute and say NO, I am not going to think like that. Replace that negative with a positive thought and watch how amazing things start showing up in your life.
It works!
May you realize all your resolutions in 2012! Stay the course, YOU CAN DO IT!
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