My one and only New Year’s Resolution

Earlier, I told you that a lot of people make the mistake of stopping their New Year’s resolution, when they don’t do each and every day one specific thing.

The one thing I didn’t emphasize to you, though, was how.

How to do that resolution every single day. I probably gave you the impression that it wasn’t possible to do something each day, hence, look at the year as a whole.

But this morning, at the breakfast table, I had an epiphanal moment. I realized that I can reach each and every goal I want to, and do the accompanying steps each day, if I just do this one thing (continue reading)

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My (not) perfect New Year’s Resolution

 

We all do it. And fail. So what IS a perfect new year’s resolution? Well, it’s one that resolves the right thing.

A lot of people do this bait and switch thing. They say that they are going to lose weight, they even write it down, and then the first time they fudge (pun intended) and go of the rails with their psuedo diet, they quit.

Say whaaat? Dude/dudette, your resolution was to lose weight. But look what happened in your mind…

( I call it the internal mind twist).

Your resolution was to loose weight, but you switched it in your head. It started off with a goal of “lose weight” but your perfectionistic, exacting, cruel task master of a brain changed that simple resolution to a ball and chain.

Here’s what your brain told you. “This year I resolve to never, ever, under any circumstances (including death in family, divorce, job loss or any “are you kidding me?” Covid restrictions to ever ever take a bite of anything fatty.”

And then, it happens. The break up. The shut down. The isolation. The job lay off. And now, here you are sobbing in a corner with your roommates hostess ding dongs staring you in the face. And you bite.

 

I almost think that people set themselves up for failure, knowing they won’t be perfect.

Am I right? On Monday morning, doesn’t everyone jokingly ask their coworkers, “How long did it take YOU to break your resolution this year?”

(um, like….10 minutes?)

This year, write your resolution on the wall. And when you forget to

go to the gym

abstain from something

Or work on that daily do list toward your goal,

remind your self… my New year’s resolution was not a perfect year of implementation and performance. My New Years resolution was to reach that goal.

Then look at the calendar, and remind yourself how much time you have left.

Better yet, break that goal down into monthly increments.

And finally, be easy on your self. These Covid restrictions have hit all of us hard, so give yourself a break, and enjoy your favorite desert before Midnight tomorrow :>

Vision Casting

• Write down what you want to accomplish by the end of the year.
• Make a daily routine to work every goal into (this is super important). If you don’t already have a daily routine, then you won’t be able to get your other goals tidily arranged into your chaotic day.

The brain cramping,  mentally torturous challenge all creative souls must rise to , in order to complete this exercise.

• Set a definite time for each task (ouch! don’t hate me I’m helping you). Look, free thinker, I GET IT….you detest the  ball and chain of a schedule. But you neeed it. (don’t you know you need a schedule?). Here’s the beautiful thing, reader…it’s just a schedule and it’s not set in stone. Once you get that daily schedule at least written down, your beautiful brain will automatically go to work fine tuning it and tweaking it for each day’s uniqueness. Here’s the big secret about scheduling (at least for creative types). When you are creative,

Almost NOTHING gets done at its scheduled time even with a schedule.

But none of that matters, because if you will at least work on and write down a schedule, your brain can see very clearly how much time each task should take, and it gives you a point of reference to plan from. You only need to write the vision, and give it structure. But just as the magnetic north pole shifts, so will your scheduled times. Just give your brain SOME magnetic point of reference, and your give your thoughts some anchors, by writing down those tasks into scheduled times.

HOW TO CRAFT A BEAUTFIFUL, CUSTOMIZABLE SCHEDULE

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• Make and add your New Year’s resolutions. Once your daily schedule is established, it’s a cinch adding your resolutions. Just make sure to break your year end goal down into incremental daily goals

Here’s my goal…running in place for five full minutes. I did the math…all I need is one extra second of running each day, and I should be able to hit my goal early. If I keep adding one second of running in place each day, by the end of the year, I will be running in place for fifteen minutes. No crawling around the block when summer hits. I’ll hit the ground running! The neighbors won’t believe it! The kids will be SO PROUD!  So what’s it’ going to take, reader? ONE EXTRA SECOND PER DAY. Like, can ANYONE do that? Yes! But they won’t, and here’s why….

Consistency. Finishing what you start. Holding yourself accountable. So what’s that going to require?

• Creating Your Daily Log. Do it reader. Go ahead. Make your daily log that shows you added one extra pushup to your workout routine, one extra second to your running time, or that you completed one  foreign phrase each day. First, though, do the math. Just do it. Yes, you must do the math. Otherwise, you will do fifty pushups today and none next week. Remember…consistency. Planning. Charting. How many foreign phrases do you want to learn this year? Three hundred and sixty five sounds like a good goal toward fluency.  How many pushups do you want to work up to by year’s end? 150 sounds awesome to me. That will require adding three pushups each week to my total. Just decide on a year end goal (by the end of the year, I want to have learned________________;I want to be able to_______________.
• Break it down and write it down.

Did you do the math? You must do the math. Get out the calculator or tabulate by hand. Just do it.

Now, write it down. And don’t put it off. I have a bad case of this, reader. So let me tell you how I motivate myself— I bolt my chart down. Over the toilet, inside the kitchen cabinet, on the living room wall. I mean, I write the vision and MAKE IT PLAIN.  See, as much as I’m hammering you on writing it all down, let’s get real. My dreams are so numerous, vast and awesome, I usually need all of January just to write them all out! And then, there’s my dream floating around….somewhere. No, reader, that won’t work for me. I post my dreams everywhere, and get them all filled in, fine tuned, and scheduled by January. Remember, the resolution is just to reach my goal by the end of the year. January is really my planning month. But I can’t plan what I forget about planning for!

What it takes.

Let’s get real, reader.  If you’re like me (and most of you seem to be), then your beautiful creative soul needs the equivalent of a whiteboard. As in, your entire wall. Did you know you can use colored chalk on your white walls? Yes, you can. Will your family appreciate it? Are they creative too? Under six years old? Cool? Well, okay, but at least post a chalkboard. Put up your list and post it on wrapping paper with a cardboard frame around it. Make it look good, but make sure you can see it….every day.  You want the emphasis to be on the list. If you look at your list every day for a month, and then finally do it, well, you did it! You got started!  Reader, write EVERY SINGLE GOAL down, and make a daily chart for each goal. You must chart your progress in each goal every single day. You must write the vision AND make it plain; otherwise, it’s just turning to dust in your drawer.

This year’s going to be different. This year, it’s all going on paper and getting accounted for.

Remember: The columns of your template need to be, your goal, each day’s date, what you did that day. And don’t forget to plan how much you need to do each day to reach your year end goal.

Do you have any tips for reaching your New Year’s goals? Share your insight with us!

 

 

 

 

Chariots of Iron

 And the Lord was with Judah; and he drave out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron.  Judges 1:19

Reader,  what chariot of Iron do you need to drive out of your life in the new year?

And the children of Israel cried unto the Lord: for he had nine hundred chariots of iron; and twenty years he mightily oppressed the children of Israel  Judges 4:3

Before every season of change, there is a preparation period– it’s the season of discontent, where everyone is ready to do what it takes to effect the permanent change that they need. This is the time of year to get those things right which are hindering your progress. You can feel it in the atmosphere…the faith; the belief; the desire. The important thing to know is, this “now” season of impetus, desire, and momentum doesn’t always last past January.  While you feel the drive, that’s the time to move forward.

But if ye will not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you; then it shall come to pass, that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.  Numbers 33:55

It’s not time to hesitate. Write the vision and make it plain

How to start the New Year right

How to make a New Year’s Resolution that works

The biggest problem with New Year’s resolutions is bait and switch.

I’ve been thinking a lot about New Year’s Resolutions lately and their astronomical failure rates.

I would like to share some of my insights with you.

One of the things I have noticed is the mis-defining of what a resolution is.

A new year’s resolution is not a daily resolve, but a year long resolve.

Here’s how to create a resolution that a has a hope in hades of surviving.