Hey folks! Guest blogger Tracy McCusker is back with a few suggestions for your New Years’ Resolutions and suggestions on how to keep them going strong well after January ends.
It’s the end of the January! That means it is probably about time to do a month-end review of your resolutions.
We all have gut feelings that most New Years’ Resolutions are broken–temporary at best. According to Psychology Today, research shows that 50% of resolution-makers abandon them by June–90% by the following year. These studies don’t even take into account the drive-by resolution makers who make broad resolutions (change diet, lose weight, be more successful), only to half-heartedly give up come February. The social script about resolutions is that they are not meant to be taken seriously.
If you’re serious about your yearly goals (and I believe that you should be), it’s important to take the time for a status update.
Pick a good pen that you’ll be comfortable writing with and set aside some time. It’s time to take a good look at what you want to achieve, and why you want to achieve it.
It’s important to pick a journal, notebook, or agenda that is separate from your school, work, and/or creative notes. The best goal journal is something that you like the look & feel of. If the design appeals to you, you will be more likely to carry it around with you during your day. And you will also be more comfortable writing in its pages. If leather agendas are your true passion, pick up a sturdy leather one. If you can’t bring yourself to write in anything nicer than a legal pad—then grab one and go for it. There are plenty of journals and folios in-between for those of you who don’t know what might strike your fancy. Cross, for example, offers a nice line of journals that have pen loops, perfect to stash in a satchel or briefcase.
Now it’s time to answer a few hard questions. How well are you doing with your initial goals? What daily progress are you making? Weekly? Are you actively working towards achieving your goals? Why or why not? Is it time to change your nebulous “get in shape” goal into a more tangible, actionable statement? What was your original motivation for your goal? Do you still have that motivation? Because of the dismal numbers for resolutions, I’m assuming that many of you at this point are struggling with your yearly goals. If you have the motivation, but aren’t on track, what’s going wrong?
Part of the problem with yearly goals is that long term goals are usually vague. My long-term goal is to “use my time more wisely and richly.” Why that goal? A few serious health problems landed me in the hospital last year. It has impressed upon me just how precious time can be. It’s my vague long-term goal. But a desire for change without a concrete plan is just a wish.
A desire for change with a concrete plan, and specific steps to achieve that plan–that is an achievable goal that
can be tracked in a goal journal.
I dedicate a couple of pages toward the beginning of my goal journal to write a long and specific list of things that I want to do in 2012. The front of the journal is a good place to put it (or the back), because you’ll want to flip to this page constantly to see how you’re doing, and to hopefully cross items off as you complete them.
The key to a good list is its length (50-100 goals is good), and a mix of short goals and long goals. Having short goals that can be completed with a day’s effort and ongoing goals that take weeks or months to finish allows you to feel a sense of accomplishment as you cross small tasks off the list and work toward your bigger goals.
I use general guides to create the list by thinking about what “large heading” kinds of projects I want to work on (writing; drawing; seeing the sights in my own city; family time), but each item on the list is specific. “Visit Griffith Observatory”, “Host a family dinner party”, “doodle for 30 minutes a day”, “Write 100 poems”, “Publish a book of poetry”.
While I am a happy user of websites like 43 Things and Accompl.sh, it is so important to write these goals out longhand. When you write out information long-hand, that information goes into your brain along multiple paths. It’s called kinetic memory. Typing doesn’t have quite the same impact, because the worlds you type are locked into visual memory. To really have an impact on your mind, pair kinetic & visual memory by tackling your goals in a journal, notebook, or planner, then reading them back to yourself later.
The second important factor of the goal journal is that it will allow you to create action plans. A list is still just a list unless you have an action plan about when these goals will get done.
An action plan is a to-do list that’s tied to a goal, and expresses a motivational statement. An action plan charts your to-dos for a certain period of time (be it daily or weekly). It contains a task, a due date, and an explanation to yourself why each step / goal is important. It’s too easy to let your personal goals become subsumed by work, so it’s doubly important to remind yourself.
“To Do Friday: ‘write blog interview questions for Mr. X, a novelist and book reviewer. Email questions by Friday evening. This interview is part of my goal of 20 guest blog posts for the year. Remember that this interview is important because I love Mr. X’s novel To the Stars, and this interview is a way of giving back to a writer that’s inspired me, and to the community that he and I are a part of.”
Now that’s an action plan.
Currently I’m hip-deep into my list with 16 completed goals out of 133. I’m on-track to completing the lion’s share of the items by the middle of the year. Only a handful of longer term goals will take until December to complete. This year, with my goal journal and a new action plan for each week, I am confident that I will achieve my long-term goal by paying attention to the short-term ones. How about you?
