I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions. The name itself almost excuses your ability to fail. Statistics showed from 2021 NY Resolutions made by Americans that only around of half the population expect to see their resolutions through. I couldn't even tell you what it is about NY Resolutions that makes them 'so hard' to stick to, but, to me, it would make sense that although we are motivated at the beginning of the year, as the realities of forming new habits (and the time and energy this will take) hit home and the thought of keeping it up all year drains all of the motivation we started the year with.
So what should we do instead? Personally, I've set (and will continue to set) very small steps towards a larger end goal. My ultimate goal for this year is to be able to earn a regular £1500 monthly income from my business. But I know that my neurological programming that I've built up over the years will be the first to tell me "it's not going to work" when I don't immediately achieve this goal by the end of January. As always, I've drawn on the books I've read over the years to help understand goal setting- I'll share some of the science with you now.
I immediately picked up one of my all-time favourites: The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy. As someone who works with pockets of time, the entire premise of this book is so exciting for me. Do a little bit, a lot, see the same results as trying to do a lot at once. It's almost like the Tortoise and the Hare theory. Consider, which would you rather: a single penny that doubles in value every day for a month, or £3 million instantly? At face value, I know which I'd pick! But that penny (that doubles in value daily) catches up to £2.7 million on day 29 and by day 31 is worth around £10 million!
The reality is that one really small change daily can cause enormous ripple effects - the best bit is that it can be applied to ANY aspect of life as long as you think about what daily actions will cause the big ripples and give you the momentum to reach your final goal. The only drawback to this theory is that the first few small steps will feel like they're not making a difference at all. If you'd picked the penny a day rather than £3 million, the first 28 days would see little to no drastic action, but then in the last three days not only did they meet the target, they tripled it! Obviously the maths isn't exact, but hopefully it explains the principle well.
Consistency is going to be key in 2022. Aristotle wrote "We are what we repeatedly do". The basic neuroscience behind this is that your daily habits and actions become automatic- eventually you won't even know you're doing it. That's your day 29 of the penny analogy.
But unless your monitoring and controlling these habits they could be working for you or against you.
Finally, see below my top tips for setting your goals this year. I've also included any links or references.
My Top Tips for Setting Goals
Identify three habits you either need to make or break which contribute to the end goal. Focus on being consistent with these habits until you've truly encompassed them into daily life. You can then work on another three.
Identify your motivation by reflecting on these questions: Why do you want or need this goal? What would happen if you don't do it? What would happen if you do? Some people prefer focusing on the positive impact, whereas for some people, reflecting on the "what happens if I don't do it" has a bigger impact on their motivations.
Monitor your progress- seeing results and traction starting to build is addictive. Once you can see it starting to work, you won't want to stop. Make sure that you're recording your progress somewhere, though, so that if you have a day/week/month that doesn't go to plan, you've got some proof that you are on the right track.
Develop 100% confidence in your goal, your decisions and yourself. Other people might not understand your motivation, goals or habits but that's purely because they aren't looking at things from your perspective.
Here's to 2022- let's do this!
Miss Tinks X
References:
Finder - www.finder.com
Forbes - www.forbes.com
The Compound Effect - Darren Hardy (book)
100% Success Basics - 100% Success Institute (book)