How to set resolutions… and follow through!
everyone talks about setting resolutions . . . let's focus more on the follow through ;)
Studies show that most "resolutioners" begin to struggle with New Year Resolutions around January 12th.
However, I don't want to focus too much on the whole "we're a couple months into the new year" mentality. We can set goals any time, so I want to focus more on the follow through, not necessarily the when.
But, because it's February, and I recently saw that January 12th statistic, I felt this topic was timely...
When we define "follow through," it means to continue with an action or see it to it's conclusion.
I tend to teach "follow through" from the angle of continuing with the action and earning an outcome, not necessarily focusing on the "finish line."
If you're having a difficult time with resolutions or goals or accomplishing tasks, it can be a sign of many things. Buuuut, and stay with me here, let's focus on the action-taking!
Setting a resolution or goal means you have an "end" in sight.
This part is great!
Starting with the end in mind and working backward is exactly what I try to help my clients understand. This allows us to have an end point while also recognizing that even if we don't get there, progress is still progress.
Once you set your (for the sake of the initial statistic I mentioned above) resolution, you can then figure out what you need to do in order to make progress.
You can break down the end point into timeframes, steps, tasks, etc to make it more manageable. This makes it way more likely that you'll follow through!
Only having the end in sight tends to result in less momentum, less results and less effort over time. Which means the "follow through" begins to decrease.
But having smaller/shorter things to accomplish can help build the momentum and results, and can encourage us to continue taking action... which is what we want!
If you're looking for something even more concrete, here are 4 steps to making it more likely you'll follow through with your next "thing" you set out to do!
1. Track :: Studies show we're more likely to make progress if we track what we're doing. Whether it be quantitative data like numbers or something a little more subjective like how you're feeling or observations, decide how you want to track your progress and also how frequently you're going to record that data. Make it something you'll actually do and look forward to noting.
2. Break it Down :: Seriously. Have an idea of what your end game is, but break it wayyyyyy down. For example, keeping your sights set on losing 50 lbs can be really daunting and, for a lot of people, can seem really far away and cause them to lose steam. But focusing on losing 5 pounds, or even 1 pound, can help lessen the stress and make it more realistic. You don't dump out a 1000-piece puzzle and get stressed that it doesn't look like the picture! Instead, you start flipping the pieces over and putting them together one at a time. Use that same tactic with your goals ;)
3. Take Credit:: If you're taking action you're ultimately making progress. So many of my clients focus on "not being there yet" instead of recognizing progress along the way. Make sure you identify wins and take credit for what you're doing! And remember... just because something is a "small win" doesn't mean it's insignificant!
4. Make it Fun :: For the love of everything, make what you're doing enjoyable! If something isn't fun of course we're going to tend to procrastinate, stray and not continue. Even if you want to lose weight and you're needing to workout, identify ways to make the working out part enjoyable. The more 'fun' you can find in the process, the better off you'll be! A quick note on this: many times when we set goals it means we have to change our thoughts and/or behaviors, which can be difficult and NOT fun. Recognizing that something isn't going to be easy is okay.
A final thought to remember...
This is soooo cliche, but it's good to have in mind:
If you want something you don't currently have, you're probably going to need to do things you haven't been doing.
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Talk soon,
Lori