Ok, so if you have read my last post hopefully I’ve convinced you to make New Years commitments this year instead of resolutions. Now what? So many people fail in their quest to improve themselves. They start out each year with high hopes and not much later they have forgotten completely about it. Then next year comes along and they go through the same process all over again. How can you increase the odds of success? The key is to be specific and focus on a limited number of commitments. Here are some things that I have found to work for me personally. Maybe they will help you.
- Focus on a few key areas
- Set challenging, but achievable commitments.
- Write down your commitments
- Measure your progress
- Be willing to adjust if something happens
Let’s explore each one a little more.
Focus On A Few Key Areas: Too many times we decide to improve ourselves all at once. It is easy to get caught up in the spirit of “more must be better” so we come up with a huge list of things to do. It’s no wonder we fail, there’s too much to follow. Instead of a large list focus on 2-4 specific areas that are most important to you right now.
Set Challenging, But Achievable Commitments: Make sure that your commitments are challenging enough to push you a little bit but not so hard that you lose motivation and give up. We need to see progress, it helps us stay motivated. For example, if you are committing to lose 100 pounds by June 1st and its January 1st you probably have a limited chance of success. Sure you will lose weight but compared to what your goal is it won’t seem like much so you could “pack it in” and give up. A commitment of losing 30-50 pounds by June 1st might be a better way to go.
Write Down Your Commitments: Make sure you are accountable to yourself. Writing down your commitments makes them more real. You don’t have to tell the whole world what you are doing but make sure you have something concrete you can refer to on a regularly. Stick a copy of your commitments somewhere that you will see on a regular basis (refrigerator, mirror etc.).
Measure Your Progress: When you set a goal or commitment it is important to have a way to measure your progress. Set points in time that allow you to check you progress. For example, if you have committed to losing 25 pounds by June you would probably want to measure your progress each month.
Be Willing To Adjust: Sometimes your best laid plans have to be adjusted. For whatever reason, sometimes life gets in the way. If this happens to you don’t get too discouraged. You can always reset you commitments at a later time. Take note of what you have accomplished up to the point you had to readjust and move forward from there.
Now that you have some suggestions to help you set your commitments for the new year, take a few minutes and think about what areas of your life you would like to improve. Write them down, attach some reasonable time frames to them, and set some benchmarks for evaluating progress. Have a “plan B”in place to help you recover if life gets in the way.
Good luck creating your commitments for the next year. To give you some ideas, my next post will list my commitments and how I plan on achieving them.
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