New Year’s resolution is one of the oldest traditions out there and a must-do for all hippy-dippy Millennials (like me!).
4,000 years ago, Babylonians would make promises to their gods, hoping to gain their favor.
Fast forward to today, millions of people continue to make New Year’s resolutions, but for different reasons. Most of them revolve around being a better person and keeping in shape. But, we hardly fulfill our New Year’s resolutions.
Why are we failing so hard?
Reason is simple. We set vague and unrealistic goals.
When it is time to fulfill them, we:
- Do not know where to start
- Are unable to breakdown goals into bite-sized milestones
- Become demotivated due to far-fetched goals
My 2019 New Year’s work resolution
Before we go any further, let’s take a look at my New Year’s resolution for work in 2019.
If you are interested to find out more on, how to set effective New Year’s resolution, read on!
How to: New Year’s resolution
Keep things simple!
Set ONE goal and focus all your energy into defining that one and only important goal.
Having multiple goals is an easy way to distract yourself along the way, deferring one goal for another, achieving nothing in the end.
Instead of “Lose weight”, try “Lose 0.5 kg every month through gym sessions and healthy diet”.
By going into details, the goal now looks much less daunting and much more attainable.
You do not need to decide yet what are the exercises you are going to do, or what kind of food you need to eat. What you now have are clear directions on where you need to be headed to achieve your goal.
Omitting the exact details has its merits. You can experiment with different ways to achieve your target (0.5 kg for the month), making it fun in the process!
If you were to force yourself doing the same set of exercises or same kind of diet for a year… Trust me, that ain’t gonna work.
How to set your goal
Your goal should have the following characteristics:
- Achievable
- Bold yet realistic
- Quantifiable
- Verifiable
- Honest
Achievable
Some would say, setting goals that are out of reach will motivate you to push harder.
Bleah.
Ask yourself, how many times have you given up on something that seems impossible?
It is always better to set an achievable goal and outperform it. Outperforming your goal gives you extra motivation to push on and do even better for the next milestone.
Bold yet realistic
“Zenny, but didn’t you just tell us to set achievable goals? What now?”
I am not asking you to set crazy targets here. What I am saying here is, refrain from setting super-easy goals.
“Lose 100g every month” is ridiculous. I mean, come on. That could easily be achieved by skipping a meal or two, which is totally missing the point right?
Your goal should provide you with results that are satisfying and rewarding.
Quantifiable
If your goal cannot be measured, then there is really no point in having one.
If you can’t measure it, how can you define the level of success?
Verifiable
For weight loss, we have weighing machine.
For work goals, come up with methodologies to verify your results.
Be accountable to yourself!
Honest
We are not perfect. We are allowed to fail.
Setting a goal does not mean we can achieve it. What’s most important are the efforts we put into it.
Over-justification to make the results look better than they are is not going to do anyone good. Great things are not achieved through self-deception.
Be honest about the goal.
For me, my goal is to discover and produce $3 million worth of leads (profits) through digital analytics effort.
I am not going to attribute any success from other avenues to my own goal.
If I do fall short of my goal, there are plenty of lessons to learn from, contributing towards my own personal growth.
Honesty = Win-win.
Make 2019 a year to remember
With less than 2 weeks left to 2019, let’s get started on creating our very own 2019 New Year’s resolution and make 2019 an awesome year!
Thanks for reading, and I wish all of you a Merry Xmas and a Happy New Year!
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