It is that time of the year again when being a gym owner or a planner-seller is the most profitable business in the market! Oaths taken under the fireworks and frolic of the dying December are often too optimistic to survive, aren’t they? We like to believe that as the pages of this year’s calendar have run out, the negative and distasteful experiences spread across them should also run out. And we are smart enough to recognize that our actions—or lack thereof—have been, at least partly, responsible for those experiences. Being creatures of evolution, we understand the importance of changing in order to move forward toward a brighter side, changing depleting habits, and replacing them with new, productive ones. As a cumulative of regret, understanding, hope, and determination—all worked up to their maximum levels—while celebrating the onset of a new year, we come upon with resolutions, “New Year’s Resolutions.”
With our hearts in the right place and feeling headstrong, we take these oaths to better ourselves, but the majority of times, the resolve eventually fails before making it to February. But, tides are always turning, and you can make them turn in your favor. This year, you can embark on the journey of self-improvement with me and many other hopeful individuals who still have faith in their Resolutions, and we shall make sure that this journey goes further than ever before!
The first step to make that happen is to make it a goal. It shouldn’t be a dream that you wish would be a reality in this new year. Instead. It should be a target that you could have achieved all along if you had carried out action in that direction. Bringing it down to the ground and within reach in your mind begins your journey towards reaching it.
The next step is to make sure that your goals are S.M.A.R.T. They need to be: Specific: What exactly do you want to achieve? Why is it important? Who is involved? Measurable: What is your unit to measure progress towards your goal? How will you know how successful or unsuccessful you have been?
Achievable: Do you have the resources or are able to perform the actions required to achieve the goal?
Relevant: How does achieving this goal affect you personally? Why do you want to achieve this goal now?
Time-bound: By when does the goal need to be achieved?
Answering these questions and maybe some more to make your goals SMART gives more clarity and understanding of your goals and your connection to your goals.
The third step is to obtain a sense of accountability that you will stand by. For example, if it is difficult for you to be accountable to yourself, you can create social accountability. Say your
my resolution for this year is to learn a foreign language. You can create social accountability by planning a trip to a country that speaks that language natively with your friends by the end of the year. This will not only make you feel accountable to learn the language because you have promised your friends to learn it and have a flight to a place where you would need that knowledge, but it also makes the goal time-bound and relevant.
The fourth and final step is to practice persistence. It is important to keep in mind that you only fail until you succeed. And you do succeed. The human standards of perfection are often godly. Hence, if you are striving to be perfect in every step of your plan towards your goal, you will most likely be caught in a dead-end, eventually losing motivation to reach the goal. The trick here is to focus on progress, not perfection. Persistent efforts in achieving small steps is the way to keep your resolution ongoing into February and through the whole year.
Bonus tips:
- focus on finding newer inspirations to stay stuck on your goals;
- evaluate your progress quarterly;
- do not set drastic goals which are incompatible with your lifestyle;
- reward yourself on small but significant victories;
- be open to improvisation and imbalances.