Let's make this year's resolutions a little different. Let's make the last!!
January is renowned for being a month of planning for many people in many aspects of their lives – be that through new year’s resolutions, annual planning cycles at work, kicking off new intentions like training for a marathon and many things in between. So if you’re doing this in any aspect, I thought I’d share, as a repeated January planner, some of the tips and tricks to maximising your likelihood of achieving what you set out to.
The need for this is evident if you look at any research about new year resolutions. The average American sets the same resolution 10 years in a row and abandons it within 15 weeks (i.e. by mid-April), according to national surveys by the American Psychological Association. For the estimated 8 percent who do find success, it takes an average of six tries—as in, six years! I’m a little too impatient for that sort of timescale, I like a higher success rate and a faster manifestation rate too.
What I have found to be the most essential part is that you focus on the outcome not the how. I know there are quotes galore that talk about the journey not the outcome being of the greatest value, and that’s true but the only way to enjoy the journey is to have clarity of outcome
“Expect good things to happen, but just be open to the form in which they show up”
The more you focus on the outcome the more options you have on how to reach it. If you get too specific on the how, then 1 blocker and you tend to stop. This is the principle of the law of attraction and many other planning and manifestation approaches include agile! Not being wed to the how something is achieved, or even in some case how it looks, can really open up the options and gives you the flexibility to keep adapting to the ever changing circumstances that are life. You need that to not be derailed when the going gets tough!
I have been setting goals for all areas of my life for several years now and even in 2020 and 2021 I achieved the majority of them. Even I was surprised by that given the whirlwind that was last 2 years, but no, I may have had a view when the year started on the how I was going to achieve things which wasn’t available given the restrictions etc, but achieve them I did.
I am passionate about making sure we’re living – all aspects of life – every day – and so I thought this January I’d share an approach I use with you, to use if you so wish.
To me, life is all about balance – there are many facets to life and we need to ensure that we are developing and evolving across all of them, so I do my goals against the 7 areas of life. For that I use a model purported by Dr John Demartini (I’ve mentioned him in many other blogs but as a reminder is a leading human behaviourist)
Demartini’s 7 are:
Our spiritual mission – why you are here, what’s our purpose;
Our mental genius/creativity – what you want to learn, how you want to feel, how you want to grow
Our Financial freedom/independence - get specific – salary, saving, debt levels, investment opp or %, big purchases you want to be able to make
Our Social influence and leadership – hobbies, friends, activities, charity, volunteering etc
Our Family and love based relationships - desires for them, how you feel about them, what you do with them, for them.
Our physical health and well-being – exercise targets, weight, diet, stress levels etc
Our vocational success - achievement, service; What do you want to achieve in role, new role, development, recognition, etc
Against each section I then write a series of statements that dictate either; the specific outcomes I want to achieve, or how I want to feel at the end of the year. Personally I make this in wheel (you’ll see a blurred version of my 2022 wheel at the end of this blog.
“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen” – Ralph Waldo Emerson
I then sum those statements up into a single word that defines that section for me, for that year. That works well for my brain (I’m dyslexic so I’ve evolved techniques to help me where my short term memory, so I’m told doesn’t work like everyone else’s – personally I think it works perfectly well just as it is ;-P, and these techniques tend to help everyone) – by using my associative memory to help break things down. By starting with the statements and then rolling them up to a word, when I see the word in any context, I can break it down into all the sub-parts.
As we know the to increase the likelihood of success, we want to get the intention into the subconscious brain and the easiest way to achieve that is to create a habit loop so that when our subconscious brain is in control (remember that’s 95% of the time) our habit actually supports the behaviour that will drive us towards the outcome we have consciously stated we want. So a single word that conjures up all of the sentiment and intention beneath, that you may see or say in different ways every day, is a great trigger for the habit loop!
“Whatever you hold in your mind on a consistent basis, is exactly what you will experience in your life” – Tony Robbins
We also know there are very few ways to get things into our subconscious brain – but repetition is one of them, that’s where the addition of affirmations and daily rituals come in. By consciously choosing to repeat positively framed statements, we can encode that into the subconscious. To achieve that I turn those 7 single words into a series (usually 3-4) of affirmations that I then repeat each morning and night. I’m now adding more and more triggers to ensure these goals are manifested.
By 10 weeks into the year those are now encoded in my brain and I am supporting the achievement of my goals 100% of the day rather than 5%! That’s the type of increase in successful probability I like!!
“If you have the ability to imagine it. The universe has the ability to give it to you” – Abraham Hicks
To help you I have mocked up the steps in an attached word doc – but note I don’t list these out, I create a visual wheel and put the whole thing on the wall, so the specificity and the affirmations are part of my daily habits.
In the below blurred picture (love you and all but you don’t get to see all my intentions for the year) I actually combined 2 areas (family and social) together this year as I wanted a balanced 6 area circle (we all have our quirks).
At the centre of the circle within each slide you can almost see is my 1 word and to the right are my 6 affirmations. This is then on the wall in my office, and I see them every time i look at the clock, and i make sure i say the affirmations morning and night!
To help you here's a template and a step-by-step process to follow (nothing snazzy just a simple ppt template you can print out and write on #keepitsimple
I know I feel more motivated having them there!
So what have you got to lose by giving this a try – a more productive, successful year?
Until next time…
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