New Year’s Resolutions – Why don’t they work?

Ahhh, a New Year full of promise and excitement! The perfect time to decide to change all those nasty habits and take life by the horns. You’ve made resolutions before, but this time it’s going to be different. You’re going to get caught up on all your emails, return all your phone calls promptly, exercise daily, stop smoking, and lose 20 pounds.

So, three weeks into the New Year, how’s it going?

Despite my sarcastic tone in the previous paragraphs, I believe we can make profound and lasting changes. However, we often fall into the following traps which sabotage our efforts:

1. We set goals that aren’t our own This is the “should” trap: I should clean out the garage, I should lose weight, I should spend more time with my in-laws. Change is difficult enough so unless you’re doing it for yourself; because you really, truly want to change, then your odds of success are slim. Besides, why would you want to waste your time doing things you don’t really want to do?

2. Being unprepared for the discomfort of change Change is uncomfortable, even painful at times. Especially when you have to confront some very unpleasant truths about yourself or the people you surround yourself with. Be prepared for the emotional toll and if you need support, whether professional or not, get it!

3. We’re not tapping into our pain It’s the same concept we use in our marketing program: you have to find your client’s pain and offer a solution which helps them visualize and even experience what their “problem-free” future will be like. In this case, YOU are the client. What will your life look like, feel like, be like, if you can overcome this obstacle? Write it out, make an audio recording, draw it or make a collage but get creative so you can see yourself the way you want to be.

4. Underestimating the time involved I’ve read several studies that state that changing a habit takes between 21 and 30 days. Some habit may take longer depending on whether there’s a physical addiction or just due to the number of years you’ve been behaving this way. Take it one step at a time and remember that a relapse doesn’t mean you give up! Just keep going and you CAN make it.

Don’t be discouraged by the frustrations and pitfalls along the way to your goals. It can be done and there are certainly inspiring stories about people who’ve overcome great odds to achieve their dreams.

We’ll continue this conversation with some common resolutions and offer tips and resources to assist you. Tomorrow’s post will deal with overcoming paper overwhelm!