Hi, happy New Year!
I hope you had a relaxed and glorious start.
Like every new year, 2023 is associated with good intentions for many people. And rightly so, because what would life be without them? After all, resolutions also help us to get a little closer to our dreams, wishes, and goals.
The exciting question is whether this is actually the case and how sustainable we are sticking to our resolutions.
If we look at the statistics, around 50 percent of people in Germany start the new year with resolutions. However, according to Statista, a German online platform for statistics, two-thirds of people do not manage to keep their good intentions in the long term.
I don’t currently have the numbers from other countries, but a British study of 3,000 participants found that 88 percent didn’t stick to their good intentions. I suspect that other countries are not necessarily different from Germany or England (no guarantee).
We humans are just creatures of habit 😉
New Year’s resolutions stand and fall with the implementation
I’ve had rather mediocre experiences with New Year’s resolutions for many years. There are two main reasons for this: On the one hand, I have partly linked my resolutions to the behavior of other people. On the other hand, my resolutions, and above all their implementation, were too vague.
It is certainly understandable that this attitude ultimately led to a disappointing result. What have I learned from these mistakes for the future?
- Set New Year’s resolutions independently of other people
- Always plan the implementation of New Year’s resolutions in concrete terms
That may sound simple, but it often proves to be a real challenge in everyday practice. Because the essential aspect for me was that I first recognized my previous behavior. It was only afterward that I was able to see that although I had good intentions, I could never achieve my goals.
Honestly, that realization felt like a freezing morning shower. Have I actually deceived myself for many years?
Unfortunately, I have to answer the question with a clear YES. The fact is that I have “dreamed” about many things too often and my hope was tied to them. And as is well known, the latter always dies last.
From dreaming and hoping to doing and achieving
After gaining clarity after the realization described above, I started to do things fundamentally differently.
The first essential step was to tie my dreams, wishes, and goals exclusively to myself and to leave other people out. That may sound selfish, but it is exactly the opposite of it.
In my opinion, it is selfish to involve other people in one’s own resolutions, even without asking them. Incidentally, this applies in business as well as in private life.
The second essential step was that I broke down my resolutions into concrete milestones. Every single step was part of the big picture and helped me to keep an eye on my goals and the appropriate milestones, even over a longer period of time.
A final impulse for you
If you have found it difficult to implement your good intentions so far, I have the following three thoughts for you:
- Define a maximum of three core goals, dreams, or wishes for your new year
- Write down in detail how your way there looks like
- Keep walking this path day by day and never let it distract you
I’m sure you’ll be amazed at how far you can make it after 90, 180 and 360 days.
Good luck and have fun with it!
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Cover image: Ian Schneider on Unsplash
