Ditch your New Year’s Resolutions and Do This
New Year’s resolutions cannot lead to a sustainable change in behavior because they are not built in a way that motivates and transforms motivation into action and change.
We must not lose weight, get to zero, exercise more, stop drinking so much and feel more gratitude. And because resolutions don’t work, they’re depressing inherently. An estimated 80% of resolutions are discontinued by February.
Make New Year’s resolutions and you’re set to feel like a fault, a loser, a faint person. And paradoxically, because you fail so quickly and thoroughly (have you ever decided to lose weight and then picked up a football match five hours later on a New Year’s Day?) you easily give up trying to change.
Resolutions for New Year typically involve one of three wishes.
- Wish to stop avoiding something
- Wish to stop doing something that makes you feel good (drinking, smoking)
- Wish to start doing something that doesn’t come naturally to you (reading, exercise)
Changing behavior and adding something new, unfamiliar are very difficult things to accomplish.
Why are the resolutions for New Year guaranteed to fail?
Your behaviors are not just simple habits
They are deeply rooted in complex psychological, social and neurocircuitry systems. Your behavior is a complex product of your personality and temperament, your various emotional and physical needs (both in the past and in the moment),
Avoidance
That is not something you want to do, anxious or uncomfortable (e.g if you having hundreds of emails in your inbox). You are immediately rewarded by a reduction in anxiety.
Giving up something
It is too difficult to quit something immediately, when you are addicted to it, (smoking, eating, drinking). How will you deal with the overloaded feeling at the end of the day that you want to relax with a drink or the feeling of deprivation that makes eating so pleasant.
The behavior you are having is difficult to change because they work for you at least for a short span of time.
Review and write your accomplishments
You’ll probably be surprised at how much you’ve accomplished. Try to write a long list, so that you feel happy about it, things you have learned, projects you have completed, connections you have made, do add your failure/loss as well.
Ambitious, career-oriented people, especially those with a commitment to entrepreneurship, always focus on the future.
- Next challenges
- The next networking meeting
- The next promotion
The next factor will always push you upwards.
Why goals are better than resolutions
A resolution is something whose main function is to punish yourself. It’s essentially not doable. So why should we take a resolution, when we are not sure about it. We should try to be more realistic, try to set a realistic goal and break the goal into small tasks and do set optimum time for that.
Start something doable
Like start your own blog, and try to write 2-3 a month, I think that is doable, and then later on make it 2-3 a week.
Feel of Accomplishment
Do enjoy your accomplishments, once you complete the task, don’t forget to enjoy, this will help you to accomplish other tasks.
