How to make your plans for 2019 a reality and achieve your New Year’s resolutions is probably the most popular topic on LinkedIn these days. So, I’ve decided to bring my two cents to the table 😊.
There are a lot of researches out there (serious or not so much) about how miserably we fail time after time in our resolutions, no matter how good the initial plan was or how determined we were at the beginning.
Why?
This is exactly the question you should ask yourself before making any further decisions. Of course, things like spending more time with the family, getting into better physical shape, and finding a more satisfying job etc. – all sound very legitimate and important.
But WHY this is important to you? Why now and how will your life be different if you are able to implement those changes?
Be as honest and open minded as possible. Ask yourself the same question again and again, peel layers and layers of meaningless perceptions and excuses, dig deeper into your true values and desires in order to find the right answer to the question WHY do you want to change.
Let’s get practical and learn how to do it.
A quick glance at Google search will show that the most common New Year’s resolution for the past few years was about our physical health and can be formulated as: exercise more, lose weight, get into better shape etc. Looks like a great and very reasonable idea. But without a proper ‘WHY’, your visits to the gym will become occasional events rather then routine, your new yoga outfits will find themselves at the back of your closet, and the weekly meal plan app on your cell phone will turn into a sad reminder about yet another resolution gone up in flames.
What can be a proper ‘WHY’? Lets’ see how it might play out.
Why I want to get into better physical shape?
- I will lose some weight and become more energetic.
Why it’s important for me to lose weight and be more energetic?
- I will look better and be able to go out with my friends more often.
Why I need to see my friends more then I do now?
- I feel like I am missing out and don’t have as much fun as I would like to.
How my life will look like if I will have more social interactions and fun?
- My friends bring out the best of me, I feel happy, capable, strong, loved, I am craving this feeling badly and can’t find it anywhere else.
This inner dialog is just a simple example of how your conversation with yourself might develop. It can be much longer and might result in the very surprising realizations.
Any change, big or small, takes time, determination and hard work. But if your ‘WHY’ is vivid, absolutely clear and incredibly desirable for you, the chances to bring your vision into reality are much higher!
Good luck!