If you are like many people, at this time of year, along with getting your Christmas thoughts and holiday cheer together, you are also processing 2020 and asking yourself, “How did this happen, and what is 2021 going to be like?” You’re also thinking about what the New Year will bring. There is something about this time of the year that stirs up hope for many. Perhaps because the thought of a new year suggests “starting over” this makes it the perfect time to position yourself for success.
Most of us start by making New Year’s resolutions which have woefully low success rates. Statistics compiled by the University of Scranton and the Journal of Clinical Psychology tell us that only about 8% of people who make a New Year’s resolution achieve them. Fortunately, a New Year’s resolution is only a place to start. While there are many reasons why New Year’s resolutions fail, primary among them is that they are approached with the wrong mindset.
A mindset is a set of beliefs that determines how we approach life. Unfortunately, many people don’t pay attention to them and are sidetracked by their power to introduce failure in our lives. If you approach your New Year’s resolution with the mindset that you may, or may not succeed in achieving it, your thinking is already flawed and you are reduced to a 50% chance of success – all this because of your mindset.
We act on the things that we believe. For example, I sit on a chair because I believe it can carry my weight. I ask for a steak knife to cut my steak because I believe it works better than a butter knife. I open my mouth to speak because I believe when I do, words will come out, and so on and so forth. In any of these examples, if my mindset is that my actions may or may not succeed, the chances of me acting are reduced by that same ratio. Apprehension sets in, and where there is apprehension, doubt rears its ugly head and eventually progress is stifled. Before you know it, your New Year’s resolution slips into the great abyss of failed resolutions, waiting to show up again around this same time next year.
So, I recommend a simple tweak – change your mindset by changing your language. Instead of making a New Year’s resolution, SET A GOAL FOR THE NEW YEAR.
I recommend a simple tweak – change your mindset by changing your language. Instead of making a New Year’s resolution, SET A GOAL FOR THE NEW YEAR.
When goals are properly articulated, the chances of success are vastly improved. In the book “The 4 Disciplines of Execution” Franklin Covey suggests that a goal must have a clear finish line, a single measure of success in the form of “From X to Y by When”. In other words, from point X, to point Y, by this date. They give the example of how the U.S. space program never really gained traction until John F. Kennedy made the following comment in 1961:
“We will put a man on the moon and return him safely home by the end of the decade.”
Indeed, America put a man on the moon and returned him home safely by the end of the decade. What changed? A goal was established with a clear finish line and a single measure of success.
Whatever the change you’re going to make this year, whether it is physical, intellectual, emotional, relational, or spiritual, instead of making a New Year’s resolution, SET A GOAL FOR THE NEW YEAR! Write it down in the form of “From X to Y by When” and watch 2021 bring you the success your desire.