The first few days of 2014 are gone. The next few days are going to be testing times for your new year resolutions. Most people will forget their resolutions just about this time, and start waiting for the next year to form new resolutions, which they are definitely going to keep.
Here are five steps that may help you avoid becoming one of those people.
1. Spell out why you have chosen your resolutions
If you made a resolution, and you are a reasonable person, then there must be a reason for your making that resolution. What was the reason?
You need to think hard and long, and spell out your reason. The answer to this question is important because it will tell you whether sticking to the resolution is important to you, or you chose the resolution because it sounded good at the time. There is no point trying to stick to a resolution just because you think it will make you look good, or because others want you to do it.
What really matters is what you want, because that is what you will end up doing. There is only so much you can do with your time, and there is no point wasting your time – even a little bit – for something that you do not care about.
If your resolutions were frivolous, drop them right now, before you waste any more time and energy in trying to stick to them.
2. Visualise the present
Sticking to your resolution will take you from Point A to Point B in your life. Visualise the negative things associated with the situation that will continue if you are not able to stick to your resolutions, and continue to live your life at Point A.
For example, let’s say your resolution is to start working out and lose weight. Then, you should imagine all the incidents and events that prompted you to think about losing weight. Also, you can imagine the consequences of not working out. The problem with such resolutions is that they do not seem urgent, even when they are important, The consequences of not working out and gaining weight are not visible immediately, but will show themselves years later, when you can do nothing about them.
Thinking about the present, negative, situation will motivate you to make your future better and help you to stick to your resolutions.
3. Imagine the future
Imagine yourself as someone who has achieved what they set out to achieve. A year has passed and you have successfully stuck to your resolution. How does it feel?
Let’s say, your new year resolution was to learn to play a musical instrument. Now, imagine yourself playing it in a group comprising of your close friends and family – people who mean something to you. Wouldn’t you want to make that happen?
Whatever your resolution is, imagine what would happen if you stuck to it. If your aim is relevant and meaningful, this positive self-reinforcement will go a long way in motivating you to stick to your resolutions.
4. Understand the costs involved
It is one thing to imagine success, and a completely different thing to achieve it. If playing a musical instrument, or having a fit body, meant so much to you, why haven’t you done it till now.
The simple answer to this question is: because you did not have the time, or you thought your time was better spent doing something else. In other words, there was a cost involved in doing it, and you were not willing to pay the cost.
You need to understand the cost, as well as the opportunity cost, involved in sticking to your resolutions. This will help you decide whether you are willing to pay the price involved in sticking to your resolutions. If you are, then this will help you in prioritising the things that you do with the limited time available to you.
5. Just Do it
The smallest of action is greater than the grandest of thoughts.
So, after you have finalised the resolutions important to to you, and you have worked out the costs involved in sticking to them, and you have understood the way in which getting there will improve your life, the only thing left to do is to just do it.
In that sense Nike got it right when it chose “Just Do it” as its motto, because at the end of the day what matters is whether you did it or not.
(Image Courtesy: bredmaker from sxc.hu)
What do you think?