Resolutions Into Reality

© Copyright 2004 by Don Blohowiak

If you've made resolutions for the coming year, make your investment of thinking worth your while. Don't just dream and dash off a wish list. Give yourself the gift of New Year's resolutions that truly give you the life you imagine.

Here are seven powerful techniques to help you move your resolutions all the way from conception to completion. (Won't it feel great, one year from now, to look back on your New Year's resolution list with every item checked and crossed off!)

1. Discover your "True Ends."

There is nothing inspiring in listing bland New Year's resolutions such as lose weight, exercise more, spend more time with the kids, improve professionally, and the like.

TIP: Answer this powerful question for every resolution you make: What do I get when I achieve this?

Example: It's not "lose weight" -- nor even, "lose 10 pounds by March 1." Those goals are not likely to sustain you through the hard work you need to put in to meeting the objective. Instead, focus on the True Ends. What do you get when you accomplish the goal? How about: "Lose 10 pounds by March 1st so that I can wear clothes that make me look and feel better." Or, "Spend at least an hour every other day in totally focused time with the kids so that I can make a significant positive impact on their emotional development."

When you focus on the True Ends, you spell out the benefits you expect to gain as a result of the work you put into pursuing your resolution. That can inspire and sustain you through all kinds of resistance.

2. Identify at least an initial plan and the necessary processes for realizing your new goals.

Many people fail to achieve their (even very specific and realistic) goals simply because they did not have a plan for executing the activities required to produce the targeted outcomes. If you do not think about and plan the how of your New Year's resolutions—charting at least an outline of action steps—you have nothing but a dreamer's wish list. And lofty dreams don't usually materialize into hard reality all by themselves.

Put some time into crafting an action plan. Pick up a book, do a web search, gather and read information on "best practices" and glean lots of other expert tips on how best to do what you are setting out to do. Every human activity in the world has been analyzed and cataloged twenty (a thousand) times over. Avail yourself of expert thinking; get smart about the processes that will lead you to achieve your objectives.

3. List incremental benchmarks of your progress.

No matter how modest or ambitious your goals for the coming year, chances are that you cannot accomplish your objectives in one swift move. Before you get into that new wardrobe, or run that marathon, you'll need to lose one pound before twenty. You'll need to build your stamina from tolerating no exercise to enduring some with modest fatigue and no pain.

Target several little goals that will lead you, rather easily, to your big one. Stair-step your progress: One push up today, three a day by the end of next week, at least 10 a day by next month… Chart your progress. Bask in the glow of documented accomplishment.

4. Build in some FUN!

How can you make progressing toward your goal more like enjoyment and less like torture? Working with my coaching clients, I've found that there's almost always a way. Think about shaping the environment surrounding the goal tasks so that you naturally derive pleasure from doing the activities that lead to your attaining your objective.

Example: If you really enjoy being with other people, don't exercise alone. Find a friend or a group of friends who will join you in the gym. Then, socializing, gossiping and laughing with people you like, you probably won't hardly even notice the time and effort you now easily spend on the treadmill, stair machines, and the like. The time flies by and you wonder, "Hey, how did I work up such a sweat?"

If socializing isn't your thing, think about adding music or the great outdoors to your uniquely motivating mix. (When I needed to seriously shed pounds and tone muscles a few years ago, I got lots of my favorite "pump" music and put it into a portable player. Then I got the best shoes and great outdoor gear I could find so that I could vigorously walk and lift weights in the outdoors I so love. RESULT: I lost more than 25 pounds without feeling tortured and I've been exercising regularly for more than three years now. I find it absolutely effortless to "psyche up" for the workout because I find it so enjoyable and rewarding on so many levels.)

Maybe your nirvana is in a local mall. Or down in a quiet corner of your basement. Or whatever.

The key is to create a rewarding situation that makes your goal-related activities rewarding in themselves. When it's rewarding, it's easy to do. And to keep doing.

5. Publicly commit to your goals.

Tell people, "I'm giving up cigarette smoking in 2005." Or, "I'm going to fit into a size 5 by May." Post a chart of your progress on the refrigerator, in your work area, your car… Keep proclaiming your commitment. Enlist the power of public testimony (and the encouragement of loved ones and friends supporting your quest).

6. Forgive your little lapses.

No matter how well you plan, how many people you tell, how enjoyable you make the task environment, you are probably gonna slip. It's okay. You're human. Falling off the plan does not mean you've failed. Just that you need to get up and get back on the path you had set for yourself. Just dust yourself off, shake off the transgression, and start again. Forgive, forget, forward!

7. Reward yourself for true progress.

You know very well what would be a great reward for yourself. So you don't need me to list suggestions.

One caution: Exercise discipline so that you don't reward yourself in anticipation of making your goal. Rewarding yourself prematurely short-circuits the reinforcement process and defeats the incentive value of the reward. Why bother to work for it if you'll just hand the goodies to you anyway? One exception: If slimming down or toning up means that you'll eventually be able to wear clothing that you cannot fit into now, go ahead and buy an outfit that you want to fit into. Hang it up prominently so that you can see it every day. And whisper to it every morning, "Soon. Soon."

Whatever your resolutions for the coming year, my thanks for your interest in the year past, and my very best wishes to you and yours for a safe, healthy, and prosperous 2005!

Lead Well® helps organizations to improve measurable results by developing their current and future leaders. For more information, please contact us. By phone, toll-free in the USA: 1-888-LeadWell (532-3935), or 1-609-716-9490. By email, Info@LeadWell.com.

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Don Blohowiak, a management consultant and popular conference speaker, is the author of several business books. The executive director of the Lead Well® Institute in Princeton, NJ, he may be reached at http://www.LeadWell.com/.

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Copyright © 2005, Don Blohowiak, Lead Well Institute

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