Happy New Year!
Amazing – it hasn’t quite sunk in yet that it is 2011. I haven’t actually had the need to right the date anywhere until just now, and it doesn’t seem real! And even more amazing is that tomorrow is already January 3rd – how did New Years Eve already get 3 days behind us? I hope everyone had the opportunity to enjoy the Holidays with family and friends, raise a glass in good cheer, and usher in 2011 with good tidings!
One thing that is very natural to consider at this time of year is Resolutions, vows we make to have positive changes occur in our lives for the upcoming year. I want to share with you some tips for making, working through and keeping resolutions, whether they are made January 1, or at any other time during the year!
Remember, the opposite of success is not failure; the opposite of success is quitting. I could add that quitting can also be defined as having all the skills, ideas and resources to do something, but never starting. Start! The rest will fall into place as you make your way down the path!
Tips for making resolutions:
Allow room for growth
It is always easier to make a resolution than it is to keep it! Give yourself some room to grow, become better and stronger, then tackle the resolution again.
Avoid using “absolutes” when making your vow. Saying things like “I promise to always, forever...” or “From now on, I will only...” or “Never again will I...” or “Every day this year I will...” can very quickly becoming a suffocating task instead of a liberating accomplishment. This is because all it takes is for you to miss one single day and the entire resolution is over, finished, failed, and the reasons may be perfectly excusable! Illness, family or work commitments, being out of town/country and many other things that may be out of your control can stop you from making the daily promise.
Instead of giving yourself ultimatums like this, try making your resolutions goals to achieve instead. Use wording for your resolution similar to these: “I am setting a goal to reach my ideal weight by May 1st, 2011” or “I will have this storage room cleaned out before the house party in June” or “I am going to finish writing this book by February 20th, 2011”.
Reset your focus if required
The next step is a direct influence from your goal, and is difficult to do because it involves personal will power. The most obvious is sticking to a routine that might be daily or weekly goals, and making sure you keep on track. A good tip here is to make your new routine a habit. Once something becomes a habit, it becomes a natural part of your life and therefore very easy to maintain. The trick is continuing with something long enough to make it that habit!
The other part of this is continuing on, pushing through to reach your goal, even if you miss the deadline! Every successful person, in sports, media, politics, business or any endeavor, has learned how to constantly reset their goals in order to attain them. It is a very rare person and situation in deed that reaches the goal on the first try!
Let’s use the example of reaching your ideal weight by May 1st, 2011. And let’s assume that your personal weigh-in day comes on May 2nd, and you realize you are still 10 pounds away from reaching your goal. This is not a time to throw your hands up in disgust, grab a bag of sugar donuts and forget the whole thing! Look at far you’ve come! You’ve probably already made some positive lifestyle changes, lost some weight and some inches, and even if you haven’t, do you really need to wait another 8 months before trying again with a new resolution. All you need to do is reset your goal! Maybe you can make a new date of June 15th, and then go for it! Get some advice from someone who has already lost that weight, or a personal trainer who understands your needs and goals, and then keep working at it!
Use the resources available to you
Did you know that you have unlimited resources? It’s true! I don’t have space in this email to really dive too deeply into this topic, but let me sum it up this way: have you ever heard of the Six Degrees of Separation? Did you know that mathematically most everyone on the planet has a friend or associate that connects you to another person, who connects you to another person, and so on, until you effectively can reach almost everyone on the planet within approximately 6 jumps? So if you are looking for a photographer for your wedding or other special event, somewhere within the network of people that you already know is a person who has a great recommendation for you! You need to start asking, and soon it will come to you! Like I said, there really is a LOT more in depth to this, but this will give you the important highlight!
Think of it this way – imagine an archer shooting at a target. He pulls back the bowstring, lines up his shot, and lets fly! The arrow, however, misses the target. The archer does not look to see what is wrong with the target that caused him to miss! Instead, he looks internally to himself to see what he needs to change about himself in order to hit the target on the next shot.
To say it another way: the road to success is paved with failure. Each failure brings with it an opportunity or a lesson, and if we are humble enough, it allows us to grow into a stronger, better person or team, which brings us closer to the desired goal!
I hope this helps you to set some goals for 2011, and succeed! I am more than happy to help with your resolutions if I am able to, even if that is simply discussion to help clarify a goal.
God bless, everyone! And Happy New Year!
Sincerely,
Andreas Zimmermann
