Revolutionize Your Resolutions in 3 Steps

You are doing resolutions the wrong way: the same way I did for years. It isn’t working, but there is another way to make – and keep – your resolutions.

Ever Done This?

On January 1, you start keeping your resolutions. Basically, your resolutions are a list of goals that you want to fulfil in the coming year. You try hard every day, while you are thinking about it. Then you miss a day, then another, and before long, you forgot that you even made the resolution. By the time you start to think about it again, it’s almost time for another year to begin, so you wait until January 1 rolls around before you give renewed effort.

This doesn’t work.

There’s a Better Way

Hundreds of years ago, people wrote resolutions – but not the way we do today. How did they do it? Let me show you the three steps to revolutionize your resolutions:

(1) Start resolving now. Don’t wait until January 1. If you think of something that you need to resolve on, then do it right in the here-and-now. If it is important enough to make a resolution, it’s too important to wait until January 1.

(2) Craft your resolutions as grand life principles. You’ve heard about SMART goals? Great. Don’t write your resolutions like SMART goals. Resolutions are not goals – they are resolutions! You can make some great goals out of your resolutions, but don’t confuse the two. A resolution should be a grand principle that is applicable to many different aspects of your life. Word it simply and concisely.

Here is an example of a great resolution:

                RESOLVED, to eat sweets in moderation.

Here is an example of a great SMART goal, but a bad resolution:

                I will lose five pounds by February 1.

Here is another example of a great resolution:

                RESOLVED, to use my time wisely, because it is my most valuable resource.

(Did you notice that the second half of the resolution is a reason why this is important? Adding the ‘because’ part is helpful for those times when you don’t feel like keeping the resolution).

Since resolutions are grand life principles, don’t make many. Just because the kid colored on the wall, you don’t have to make a resolution against it. Start with just 1-3 resolutions, and gradually add a few more as you go along, focusing on the most important aspects of your life that you want to change.

(3) Review your resolutions. Every. Single. Day. Every morning, pull out your resolutions and review them. Read over the list and think about what you wrote. Go a step further – resolve on that resolution. Recommit to it for that day. Do this every single day. Write a note to yourself on a sticky note that says, ‘recommit to resolutions daily,’ and post this somewhere that you will see it often. You won’t keep your resolutions perfectly, but as you review them daily, they will become part of you. Eventually your resolutions will become natural.