The #1 Strategy For Achieving Your New Year’s Resolutions

J. Allen Shaw said, “Don’t make resolutions without an action plan. The secret to success is right in your hands.”

Achieving your New Year’s resolutions is a lot more simple than what people make it. One strategy is actually committing to keep your firm decision to do or not do something and staying determined in that decision (P.S. these are the definitions of resolution).

But no matter how hard you try, the goals and resolutions you set don’t seem to get completed. And all that effort, motivation, and energy seems wasted. You feel depleted, defeated, and uninspired. 

According to best-selling author on goal-setting, Douglas Vermeeren says that roughly 70% of the people who set goals fail to achieve them.

This is both comforting and frustrating. Because even though we get motivated right before flipping the calendar, saying, “That’s it! Tomorrow, for sure I’ll…” we end up in the same spot, if not two steps back. 

However, there’s a way to move past this and actually achieve your New Year’s resolutions.

Just like you practice patience or learn how to hold your tongue, you must learn commitment. Its definition is the state or quality of being dedicated to a cause, activity, etc. And you can always enhance your state or quality of being dedicated to your goals, resolutions, and dreams.

You can accomplish everything you set your mind to as you grow, learn, and master commitment.

The secret to success is right in your hands.

In the next few minutes, I’m going to share some steps to help you master commitment and achieve your resolutions and goals.

The #1 Strategy: learn commitment.

STEPS TO COMMITMENT: 

Actions vs. Emotions

The first step is to stop relying on your emotions. 

How often have you set your mind to work on something, only to push it aside for later? 

“I don’t feel like it,” waltzes into the room and invites you to sit on the couch, sleep in, eat that candy, or cross out today’s date to save it for tomorrow. Instead of holding fast to your initial inspiration, you chisel away your motivation each time you rely on your emotions. 

The thing is, you need to realize that you are already in control. 

Most people let their emotions lead them and end up beating themselves up later for not getting closer to their goals. You are in control of your emotions, not the other way around. 

Don’t be led by them. Save yourself from the momentary comfort and invest into long-term satisfaction. 

To achieve this, come up with a trigger to motivate you to take action. Before you settle into your emotion and convince yourself that “later” will happen, find a trigger point and challenge yourself to act quicker than you feel. 

Present vs. Future

Envision your future. 

What do you want to do?
Who and where do you want to be?
3 months, 1 year, 3 years, from now? 

And ask yourself, what would my future self do today? 

Now, do. 

I learned this from one of my favorite authors, Benjamin Hardy.

If you want to accomplish your goals and live your dreams, do what your future-self would do today. 

My future self wants to grow, improve, and have new goals that are crazier than my present ones. That’s you, too, right?

You have that thing you’ve ALWAYS wanted to do. You want to improve your lifestyle and live with purpose. You want to get better at what you’re doing or learn how to do something new.

So part of committing is believing and seeing yourself doing it in the future. Because you’re either interested and like the idea of it, or you’re committed, serious, and actually want to make it happen. 

Upgrade to your future self and change today’s plans. Do what you need to do as your future self. You’re the only one who can make it happen.

Train Your Monkeys

You know the three wise monkeys, “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil?” 

There are various meanings and concepts attributed to them, but in terms of New Year’s resolutions, they can help you master commitment and achieve your goals. Let’s break it down with see, hear, and speak:

See: 

Write it all out. 

When you see your goals, outcomes, and progress on paper, your internal drive starts to work. You get motivated to make it happen. That feeling of inspiration wells up and encourages you to take action. 

Benjamin Hardy shared 5 journal prompts which will help you train this monkey. They are: 

1. Where am I now?
2. What are my wins from the last 30 days?
3. What are my wins for the next 30 days?
4. What are my goals for the next 12 months?
5. What are my goals for the next 3 years?

Use these 5 journal prompts at the beginning of every month. These will help you see your goals, outcomes, and progress, and ultimately, master commitment. 

Spend 5 minutes in the morning to sit and review your goals. Then 5 more minutes to write about what needs to happen today. That’s it! 

Hear: 

Share your goals with a friend/accountability partner. 

When you let another person hear your goals, you increase your confidence and get energized to achieve. And, after hearing yourself, you get more clarity for yourself now and for the future. 

The more you talk about it, the clearer things get. 

You adjust and learn about what you actually want. 

If you keep everything inside and don’t let others or yourself hear your plans, you’ll only get frustrated, stuck, and stagnant. 

You don’t have to post it all on social media and get extremely public with it. Just find one or two people you trust and share your dreams and aspirations. And in return, be this person for someone as well. 

You need people in your corner, and people need you in theirs. Your opinions, ideas, and perspectives are valuable and vital for others and yourself.

Speak: 

Pay attention to the way you speak.

Life and death is in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). 

Do you bash on yourself for having dreams? Do you speak negatively towards yourself and possibly others? Do you get insecure and doubt yourself? What does your inner critic sound like?

What we say often stems from what we think, which comes from what we believe.

You need to change your beliefs/values and renew your thoughts to enhance your speech. 

As you clean up your thought life, your speech towards yourself, others, and your goals will improve. This results in confidence, integrity, and honesty. 

One of my mentors encourages people to “speak the Word.” Meaning, confess scriptures, read it out loud, and memorize the Bible as you can. Not only does this help clarify what God’s will is for you and your goals, but it grows you in your faith and relationship with God. 

As your spirit gets fed, other areas of your life will reap the benefits (mentally, emotionally, and even physically). God’s Word is alive and active and will help you grow as an individual. 

The more life, positivity, gratitude, and encouragement you speak, the more of it you’ll reap.

Conclusion

You can make resolutions at any time. So, if you missed the prep work before January 1st came, give yourself some grace and start now. 

Don’t put it off yet again, because the #1 strategy for achieving your resolutions and goals is to learn commitment. It’s part of the plan to take actions!

Master it by taking actions instead of living off of your emotions, upgrade to your future-self, and train your monkeys (see, hear, speak): write it out, share it with a friend, and watch the way you speak.

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“In their hearts humans plan their course, but the Lord establishes their steps.”

Proverbs 16:9