When did New Year’s Resolutions go out of style?
Do you remember how fashionable they once were? Every year, people across the Universe would declare their resolution on or around New Year’s Eve… and they’d feel so much better for doing so.
Until a few weeks later. Because after that initial shot of self-satisfaction and impassioned determination, as we marched off to the gym, organized our sock drawer or refused to smoke a cigarette, we simply went back to our familiar, lethargic and hedonistic ways.
This is why no one makes New Year’s Resolutions any more: we simply don’t have the resolve to keep them.
So, rather than admit that we’re all a bunch of weak-willed wimps, we declared resolutions to be useless, worthless, senseless, and self-sabotaging. We blamed the resolutions, rather than admit we’re too spineless to keep one!
Now, we make New Year’s Intentions – the kinder, gentler, less-demanding substitute for resolutions. “I intend to eat more healthy.” “I intend to cut back on my smoking.” “I intend to save 10% of my income.”
Intentions are great, aren’t they? They allow us to feel decisive without asking us to commit to changing our behavior in any significant way. In fact, they are really more like emphatic wishes or enthusiastic prayers. They don’t require us to do anything differently; they merely declare our desire for something to be different.
Well, I’ve had enough!
I’m bringing New Year’s Resolutions back… AND in a “new and improved” way!
Because the truth is, there is nothing, NOTHING, wrong with New Year’s Resolutions, per se. True, the number of people who keep them all year is something like .00012 percent. But that’s because we’ve been making the wrong kind of resolutions!
One of the main reasons New Year’s Resolutions haven’t worked is that most people resolve to do something they really don’t want to do. They resolve to do something they know would be good for them, like lose weight or quit smoking or save money, but they don’t really want to DO the things that would make these resolutions possible.
They don’t want to get up an hour earlier to work out. They don’t want to stop eating sugar or drinking double mochachino lattes. And they’d much rather have a new gadget, toy or pair of shoes than save $200 a month. It’s really that simple.
The solution?
Resolve to do something you really want to do.
Did you get that? Something you WANT to do! Not something you think you need to do or should do.
- What is it that you want to do that you haven’t let yourself do yet?
- What dream or goal do you have that excites you, inspires you or calls to you?
- What are you NOT doing that you know would feed your soul, your creativity or your wildest dreams if you just said, “Yes, I’m doing it now!”
We all have something. Shoot, I have a list of things! Two books I want to write (that have nothing to do with marketing or business). A cabaret show I’ve been thinking about for over 3 years now. And that CD I want to record.
What is it for you? What is that “thing” you’ve not allowed yourself to do? What is it that you keep putting off until the kids are grown or you retire or the time is right or you can find some spare time? What keeps getting pushed aside because you’re too busy with the daily stuff of life?
Whatever it is, resolve to do it this year.
Resolve to devote a specific amount of time every day to doing that thing.
Will you start and stop? Probably. Will this resolution require you to change your schedule or let go of something else? Maybe.
So what? Whose life is this anyway?
Do this:
- Pick one thing, that one thing that would give you the greatest feeling if you took one step closer to doing it or completing it. ONE THING. Not two, not seven, not twelve. One.
- Decide to commit a specific amount of time to that one thing every day. Or every other day. Or every week day. Whatever feels right to you.
- Resolve to follow through on this commitment for just 30 days. That’s it. Don’t commit to the whole year. Just 30 days. By making a 30-day commitment rather than a 365-day commitment, you won’t talk yourself out of it so quickly. Because, hey, it’s only for 30 days!
What I’ve found is that once you’ve experienced 30-days of doing that thing you want to do, you’ll re-up for another 30 days… because the experience of those first 30 days was so delicious, so rewarding, you won’t be able to give it up.
Here’s another tip.
Don’t do it alone. For many months now, since last March, I’ve been working with a small but mighty group of people who make a 30-day commitment and then help each other keep that commitment. And they’re still fired up about it because they have the encouragement, accountability and community provided by the Just An Hour program.
Just An Hour is a 30-day program (it starts again on January 1, 2012) that gives you the inspiration, loving accountability and community support you need to not only keep your commitment (or New Year’s Resolution) but discover that anything is possible; you can have and do the things you want in your life.
This may sound grandiose to you right now, but this is exactly what other people in Just An Hour have realized for themselves by going through this 30-day experience.
Come on along. We’ll do this together. We start in January. You can give it 30 days. See what happens.
Let’s bring New Year’s Resolutions back in a new and much improved way
P.S. Do you really want to go another week, month or year NOT doing that thing you know you want to do? Really? Come on. It feels so good to finally get it done! Find out more about Just An Hour.