A new year comes and with it so do many New Year's Resolutions. Most of those resolutions don't last into February and fail. There re two main reasons why the resolutions fail, willpower and planning.
The willpower is something that everyone has to a certain degree. If you can commit to a project you will most likely persevere and the more willpower you have the stronger the obstacles you can overcome. You the reader should know what how strong your psyche is, and I will not dwell on ways to improve it this post.
Planning is something that is often though of as unnecessary yet sometimes it is critical to the success of a project. Consider this, most New Year's Resolutions are created on the spot, after having a few drinks in the company of friends and family. Everyone goes around and says their resolution. A person may not have the time to think through a resolution, so they just say something. Anything, except for what someone else said, you don't want to copy their idea, do you? According to Squidoo we end up with resolutions like :
1. Stop Smoking --- How?
2. Get into a Habit of being Fit --- What is the habit of being fit?
3. Lose Weight - the Battle of the Bulge --- How, how much weight?
4. Enjoy Life More. --- Way too broad and undefined
5. Quit Drinking ---Forever, or for this year? Completely?
6. Organize Yourself - ---In which part do you want to be organized?
7. Learn Something New ---In which scope? How? How frequently?
8. Get out of Debt ---How fast? Which method?
9. Spend More Time With Family ---How much time? Which family members?
10. Help People. ---Again, way too broad and undefined.
A good resolution is really a goal and a good goal is very similar to a good story, it has to answer the six W's who? what? where? when? why? how?.
A goal which is not concrete will almost surely fail and what it does accomplish will not be as optimal as when a goal is planned and defined. To learn how to properly plan a goal, read the SMART goal post SMART Goals.
As of today, I do not have a resolution for 2012. I'm stuck in 2011, where I feel like I subconsciously learned something, but have not yet realized it, and when I do, I'll most toward 2012. I will however have smaller mini-goals for 2012. Some of those will be posted and you can follow along with the progress.
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