7 Tips to Finally Stick to your New Year's Resolutions in 2020
Along with the new year, comes renewed energy and desire to improve from the year that just ended. Some of us have strong desires to achieve lofty goals. Taking action toward those goals can become difficult by the second or third week. In order to set yourself up for success, here are some coaching tips to help you thrive in 2020.
1. Visualize the end goal. We think in pictures, so must visualize the outcome of the goal. Imagine the outcome of the goal in your mind, as if you have already achieved it. Use your five senses to see it, smell it, taste it, touch it, and hear it. Really internalize the picture in your mind. Close your eyes and see yourself with the goal fully achieved.
Continually visualize the desired outcome. This may require you to pause a few times a day as you lean towards old habits. While you pause, reflect back to the outcome you desire. See it, touch it, smell it, hear it, taste it.
2. Strength & Persistence. The desire to attain the goal must be stronger than any fear we may have about change and success. We must stay persistent in the execution phase. Many of us initiate wonderful goals, but they stay as just an idea in the mind; just a pipedream never brought into reality.
Persistence to repeat the actions required for the new habit is really where the stick-to-it-iveness comes in order to replace an old habit with a new one.
3. Be “HER.” Regularly think about who you need to be to deliver your goal. Can you be the same person you are today? Probably not, or your goal would already have been achieved. Be the person you see as the “successful” you. Imagine being an actor, acting out the screenplay of your vision for your life. How might you dress, walk and talk, connect with people, manage meetings? Whatever you see when you close your eyes and visualize your future, act the part today as if it’s already here.
4. Make the Shift. Do Not Stop. Consider which ways you need to change and what habits of behavior need to shift. Whatever shifts are needed, focus on them daily; stay in action; and stay in motion. Do not stop. Otherwise it will take an extraordinary effort to overcome the inevitable inertia to start again. You’ll say you tried, but it was too hard. You won’t restart. Failure to persist with the new actions is how most people fall back into old habits.
“Your Daily Practice: Focus on the desired and required shift. Stay in action. Stay in motion.”
5. Deflect the Saboteur. A challenge you will face is the comments from those around you including colleagues, friends, or even close family. If your goal is a real stretch for you, people won’t want you to succeed. They won’t want you to change or the circumstances to change (unless your goal is to pull yourself away from some form of self-destructive behavior).
If your goal is about personal growth and expansion, others become frightened of what the change will mean for them. Will you spend less time with them? Will you have new and different interests? Will you move outside their income bracket, and so on? Often people are unaware of their discouraging remarks. Without them being consciously aware, their brain craves the status quo, the “safe” place, and your change risks upsetting that. So, close your ears to discouraging comments. Build a personal “force field” around you to deflect negativity.
6. Support Team. Finally, having someone in your corner is a critical part of your success. Find someone who believes in you and your ideas for change. It’s important to have someone that you feel accountable to. We’ll often do things for others that we won’t do for ourselves. We tend to want to follow through on commitments to others much more than commitments to ourselves. An encouraging word makes a big difference, as does a kick in the pants when we’re slacking off and starting to drift!
7. Ensure Success with a Coach. Partnering with someone you don’t know can ensure greater success because they are completely objective and know how to integrate, encourage and push you to follow the steps you need in order to reach the end goal. They will not shy away because they are worried about hurting your feelings and they will not let you give up because you gave it ‘your best’ and ‘tried really hard.’ They are hired to make you succeed. How serious are you this year about achieving the ultimate outcome of your desires? A coach could be your secret weapon to keep you from failing.
Roundup for Success
Create a technicolor visualization of the goal – really feel it!
Be doggedly persistent!
Be “Her”
Make the shift each day – do not stop! Execute at least one action a day towards the attainment of your goal.
Deflect the Saboteur’s negativity with a personal force field.
Find an encouraging support person that believes in you and your ideas for change.
Ensure success with a coach that will hold you accountable to achieve your success without letting you give in or give up.