5 Reasons Most Goals Fail — and How to Finally Make them STICK This Year!
New Year’s resolutions are extremely popular. But what’s even more popular is the breaking of those resolutions.
Why is this?
Why do well-meaning, smart and inspired women all over the world fall off the Resolution Wagon, only to find themselves slip-sliding back into old habits, patterns and perspectives?
What’s a smart woman like you to do if you REALLY wants things to be different this year?
I’ve got just the thing – my handy-dandy list of the top 5 ways resolutions get wrecked, and how to avoid it happening to YOU:
1. Perfectionism:
When perfectionists are good, they are very, VERY good. But when they are bad, they are a nightmare.
You may be suffering from the oh-so-common: All-or-Nothing Syndrome — where women expect nothing but perfection from themselves — and the minute they slip, trip, goof or ooopsie, they whip out their invisible bat and start a self-bludgeoning extravaganza. Ouch!
When you have a bad relationship with “failure”, you’re doomed. But when you see failure as nothing more than an awesome opportunity to grow, you’re free to soar, swerve, course-correct and take the wildest road less-traveled — all while suffering less, and learning tons more.
2. Inertia:
As the wise-one’s say: actions speak louder than words. And ain’t it da truth!
But getting to the place where you’re brave enough to leap tall buildings is tough. Your goals – while grand and glorious – can scare the bujoozles out of your brain. And when the brain gets scared, it gets stubborn.
Period.
Want inertia on purpose? Go scare yourself silly.
But that’s an easy block to blast. Once you’ve set your goals, go back and parse them into the teensiest, tinsiest tidbits imaginable. Ideally break things down into tasks around 3-15 minutes long max.
That way your brain says “Ahhhhhhhh!” when it sees those sweet, simple items, preventing it from retreating into it’s densely-thick shell. Making everything fun, easy and bite-size is the name of the Resolution Game.
3. Slipperiness:
I come across women every day who’ve got some seriously big dreams. But when I ask most of them if they’ve written them down and made them official, they look at me like a 3-eyed cat wearing a tutu.
Writing down your goals is crucial to their completion. Studies show that most people who achieve big things declare their goals by putting pen to paper.
Jim Carry is a great example of this: at the beginning of his career, he wrote himself an outlandish check for $10 million dollars dated for 1995, and carried it around for years. Wouldn’t you know, in 1995 he hit that goal (and some).
So don’t take this lightly: “If you write it, and it will come.”
4. Suckage:
Have you ever felt yourself backsliding? Like something was slowly, silently, steadily sucking you backwards?
If you’re human, you’ve likely felt on top of the world 1 day, only to wake up the next month (or morning) to find yourself stuck in a slump. Suckage happens for many reasons, but most often it’s due to far too many oh-so-familiar reminders of who you WERE — not who you ARE.
From a “sucky” home environment, “sucky” relationships or “sucky” reminders of any sort, they all have that magical power to tank your mojo. So once you’ve claimed your new, lofty goals, scan through the rest of your life (and home) and make sure to reduce, diminish, clear out or zap entirely all things “sucky”. You’ll be so glad you did.
5. Faders:
Goals, if not reviewed regularly and often, might as well be written with trick ink — the kind that slowly dissapears off life’s pages.
Coming back to your goals daily, weekly, monthly or quarterly is a vital step to making those dreams o’ yours (at last!) come true. The more you’re reminded of your ideal outcome, the more likely it is to happen.
So find ways to declare, review, ponder or gaze at your inspired resolutions as often as possible. The more you think about them, gaze upon them, and slather yourself in their fuzzy warm glow, the more your energy starts to line up with theirs.
And once you and your resolutions are an energetic match, watch out world! Here you come: confident, unstoppable and resolutions a ‘rarin!
Happy New Year, Unstoppable You…
Love,
Stephanie
