4 Steps to boost your new year’s resolutions success from the typical 20% to 95% – Guaranteed!

Posted by Perspect

Only 20% of New Year’s resolutions result in success. I am sharing four tips that if followed, will bring that to a 95% chance of success.

1. Create a deep emotional connection to the outcome

When setting a goal take time to reflect on what is truly important for you as it relates to this goal.  Ask yourself, if I achieve this goal what benefits will I experience? Take time to write this list down. Think beyond yourself. What will be better for your family, for your community, for your business etc?

As you reflect on the list pay attention to your emotional responses. Do you feel excitement, happiness, peace when you think about these benefits? If you don’t then they are not likely to help you achieve the goals. It is difficult to stick to a change if you don’t really care that much.

If you truly want sustainable success you must create a deep emotional connection to the outcome that is powerful enough to get you through the difficulties of change that accompany goal achievement. It has to feel like a must-do can’t-fail goal.  My experience is that these emotions are much stronger when we can find significant benefits for someone other than ourselves, specifically our children, spouses and other loved ones. It doesn’t mean we change the goal; instead, we change our mindset.

2. Ensure your goal and personal values are in alignment

When there’s a difference between what we say and what we do, we experience an Integrity Gap. If the gap is large, we experience frustration, stress and personal dissatisfaction – and by extension will likely discard the goal.  Here’s an example:

You want to change your behaviours so that you will be your children’s hero and be recognized as the best parent, but you also want to be connected with everyone else and manage your social status.

The two may be at odds – you say you want to spend more time with your children BUT you value your social time more deeply. The conflict between these two creates an integrity gap.

Before you make a deep commitment to a goal, especially one that impacts others, get honest with yourself as to what you truly value.

Most of us are not ‘in-tune’ with our core values all the time. If you are unsure of yours, try this Core Values Exercise. Consider what you discover and how it may support/hinder you in achieving your goals.

3. Be specific

If you have followed the above, you are likely in a good position to answer the following two critical questions:

“What does the success of this goal look like?”

“How will I measure success?”

Think carefully about this and write out a specific goal statement with key measures of success. Create a schedule of how you will check-in on your own success.

4. Engage someone you respect and trust for support

Working on a goal in isolation makes it very easy to quit – even when you have completed the above three approaches. You are only accountable to yourself, and we are much more likely to be OK letting ourselves down than someone we care about. (hence the emotional connection beyond self in the tip above)

Create a formal relationship with a trusted and respected ally (or allies) and give them permission to hold you accountable if they see you dropping the ball. In our coaching practice we have people ask their ‘accountability partner(s) two questions at a set frequency, they are:

• How did I do last week at becoming more effective at {my goal}?
• What can I do better next week to become more effective at {my goal}?

 The process is simple. Ask the question; Listen to the answer and say “Thank You”. Don’t rate the response, don’t defend yourself, just say thank you 🙂

Reflect on the responses and create an action plan to address the feedback and feedforward you received. Share your plan with your accountability partner.

If you follow the above steps, you can take your probability of success from 20% to 95%.  Significant research has been conducted on this topic and forms the basis of our coaching practice. This approach is so effective that for our clients who use this we offer a “Guaranteed and Measurable Outcome” or they do not have to pay us.

I wish you an amazing 2020 and hope you achieve all of your goals this year.