Forget New Year’s Resolutions this year. Want to make an impact on your life? Pick a life changing goal and announce it to the world.
Pair up with a partner or a group of people that are like minded. You never know, 2018 could be the best year of your life. Why not go for it? What do you have to lose?
The term “resolution” in and of itself is a self-defeating proposition. Just think about the word, “resolve.” It pretty much means settling or finding a solution to a problem & most people try to but seem to never resolve the problem… think about how busy the gym is in January & how empty it is by February.
I don’t think we should be setting ourselves up to fail, especially at the beginning of the year!
There are better ways. If you really want to change your behavior in 2018, forget the resolutions. Set goals instead and pick one that will impact you the most.
A couple of years ago, I set a goal that filtered into different facets of my life. I made the decision to be healthier & with that, I found myself eating healthier, gymming more, giving up smoking & even giving up sugar! #Winning
Here are five tips based on current research around effectively accomplishing your goals:
Choose one not many:
Rome was not built in a day and trying to completely change your financial life all at once is self-defeating. Your goal can be like mine and end up being multi-faceted but keep it simple. In fact, a study by the Journal of Consumer Research found that writing out a detailed plan worked well for participants when they focused on a single goal.
When they focused on multiple competing goals, the detailed plan was less effective. When setting your goals for the New Year, make a list of all you want to accomplish in 2018, then choose to focus on one goal that will either have the greatest impact on your finances, is easy to accomplish, or simply is the one with the greatest chance of success.
Put your goal in writing:
Whether you go old school and post your goal on a piece of paper and tape it to your bathroom mirror or you go high tech and use an online journal such like bucketlist.com, write down your goal and post it where you will review it and re-engage on a regular basis.
Set action commitments:
Breaking your goal down into smaller steps and holding yourself accountable to each of the steps takes a long term goal and brings it into the short term. Setting a list goal like the 100 new things to do in 2018, makes it easy to measure. If you want to spend less and save more, you could set a weekly savings goal and write down how you reduced your spending each week.
For example, dropping your gym membership and started riding your bike more will give you a saving of R500 a month or choosing to pack your own lunch everyday might save you R50 a day! Both these goals would work out to saving of R18 000 in just one year.
Take it a step further than simply telling a friend:
Enroll a friend in a goal setting partnership where you support each other on a weekly basis to meet your goals. Set up a weekly call or send a weekly email to your partner with your progress. Even if your progress report is simply, “I didn’t do anything this week,” putting your goal in focus each week and having to report on your progress can help you stay on track.
Broaden your accountability by setting up a private group on Facebook or Whattsapp where you post about your progress, or simply set up an email distribution list of people to share your challenges and successes.
Reward yourself:
Give yourself some kind of acknowledgment when the action steps are accomplished and a big reward when the final goal is reached. Rewarding the steps along the way can motivate you to keep going, especially when the steps are challenging and the goal is a tough one.
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