Three ways to make sure your New Year's Resolutions Stick
Programming your subconscious mind for success
I'm writing this article on New Year's Day- it's that time of year when most of us make our new year's resolutions. Yet we all know within a month, most people have broken their new year's resolutions- so how do we stop this from happening?
I teach a seminar on goal setting and have presented these seminars to thousands of individuals around the country. I’ll share with you three helpful tips to make your resolution work this year:
1. Set a goal, not a resolution. By setting goals you are now going to strive for something throughout the year. The problem with most people's resolutions is that they are vague. For example someone might resolve to lose weight or exercise more. These are not clear goals, and will not get exact results. If you say I am going to lose 20 pounds this year, that is a measurable goal you can plot out over a year’s time. By doing this you won't get discouraged so easily. You can set milestones to achieve as the year progresses.
2. Write it down. All goals must be written down. The process of writing them down sets the idea/goal in your subconscious mind, like concrete. Once you have written your goal(s) down, your subconscious mind will go to work and begin achieving.
3. Make the goal(s) reasonable. Goals should have a 50-50 chance of being achieved. The main reason for this is you have to convince your subconscious mind that you can achieve this goal. For example, if for the last 10 years you have put on an extra 200 pounds; it would probably be unrealistic to think that you could take the entire weight off in one year. I'm not saying that it can't be done- we have all read extraordinary stories of people becoming tremendously focused and committed to that type of monumental goal- just remember you have to convince yourself that it can be done.
Review your goals and measure your results. When you set your goals make sure you have a yardstick to measure them by. Decide where you are and where you want to go. If your goal is to make more money this year, state exactly how much more money you want to make. Your subconscious mind cannot grasp tremendous amounts of money, however if you set your goal to make an extra $ 50,000 this year your, subconscious mind can work on solutions to achieving that goal.
A quick final thought is that by setting goals that can be achieved over the course of a year, you won't be so quickly discouraged if/when you get a little off track. By reviewing your goals again, you will help you set yourself back on track. The simple process of writing down and reviewing your goals will assure most of them will be accomplished.
Amaze yourself -Live Learn Grow
Rodney Rash