Ditch Resolutions: 5 Tips to Actually Achieve Your Goals
Do me a favor: don’t think about the resolutions you’ve broken in the past. Don’t think about how you haven’t revamped your resume, or went to that networking event (or even looked for a networking event to attend), or ordered new business cards with the url of your new site. No, I said don’t think about it.
OK, I know, you thought about it. And you’re probably beating yourself up right now about how it hasn’t happened yet. I know, I do it too! Last year I had just one resolution: to stop biting my nails. Here it is one year later and....I’m still biting my nails.
The good news? Resolutions rarely work for anyone, so it’s not just you.
What if we did away with the resolutions - just let them go, guilt-free?
OK, OK, you might still want to update your resume or design new business cards, and that’s great. But let’s banish the word “resolutions” and use a new word instead: “goals.” Or “intentions.” Or “projects.” Or “Things To Do To Add To My Awesomeness.” Really, anything but “resolutions” is an improvement.
Now that we did away with that fear-inducing, unrealistic word, how do we make our goals/intentions/awesomeness stick? How can we make sure that we follow through? Here are some ideas:
👶 Take baby steps
Doing something most days towards my goal covers way more ground in way less time than you think! I mean really - how long are you going to wait for a free afternoon or for inspiration to strike? So, break your goal down into said baby steps by determining the smallest, tiniest step you can take right now. And the next. And the next. And the – you get my drift. Work within those steps, and yes, even 15 minutes counts. I have a client that knows she can only commit to working in 15 minute increments, and for just 15 minutes a day. After a week, though, she’s put almost 2 hours behind her project, which is certainly not chump change! She often does more work than that, but when she does, it’s the icing on the cake.
🧐 Experiment
What works for your bestie or your Mom or your spouse won’t necessarily work for you. For example, I’ve embraced the fact that I need my Google calendar for scheduled appointments, Asana for project management and my YAY! Biz Planner to be most effective, productive and sane. Every single one of my clients has had to find their own process, and they do that by trying something new for a short amount of time and then tweaking it ‘til they can write their personal roadmap to the finish line.
😋 Don’t bite off more than you can chew
What is worse than dumping a big project on your lap and giving yourself a week to do it, or writing a page of To Dos in your calendar with the expectation of them being done in a day’s time? These are not hypothetical questions. The answer to both is, “Nothing. Nothing at all is worse than that.”
As tough as it is for overachievers like us (You mean I can’t have a full-time job & a healthy marriage & the amount of sleep a human needs & spend every other waking moment on my business?), I beg, I plead, I implore (yes, implore!) you to be realistic.
Why not limit your To Do list to a maximum of 2 tasks each day? Worse comes to worse, you have extra time and steal a To Do from the next day, or (gasp!) take yourself up on some down time. Best comes to best, you still get your work done while not beating yourself up and making your head explode. Exploding heads are seriously not good.
🙌 Make it a habit
One of my clients decided that she would have studio time at the same time every day – right after dinner. She was used to plopping herself in front of the TV for hours until bedtime, but now, she leaves the dishes, walks to her studio, sets a timer for 45 minutes, and gets to work!
After a few weeks, she told me she found herself in her studio one night and didn’t even remember walking there - which was great , because she made it a habit! Now going into her studio is just what she does after dinner each night. It’s automatic.
😍 Be nice to yourself
Seriously. Your work doesn’t have to be torture. In fact, if it is, then maybe it’s time to reassess what you’re doing (although that’s another post for another time).
If you find you’re dreading a part of your process, how can you make it as painless as possible?
A client of mine hates hates hates (hates hates) ironing, yet she knows that she has to do it in order to make her cloth napkins. When we were working together and she got to that part of the project, she stalled, and we focused on trying to make ironing somewhat enjoyable. She remembered that she had a few episodes of “The Next Design Star”, her favorite show, waiting to be watched on her DVR, and committed to ironing while getting caught up in the competition. The next week, she had more room on her DVR and a crisp, wrinkle-free piece of fabric!
Do me another favor: look at the date. Mark it down. Write down your goals/intentions/awesomeness in a simple bullet pointed list, and post it somewhere that you’ll see it every day. Now smile, knowing that you’ll never break another resolution again (the fact that you won’t make one to begin with will stay in this room).