Every January a big part of the population makes new year resolutions, they feel motivated and ready to start the new year on the right foot.  Google reports that there is a peak in searches on the first days of January for the following keywords: “diet”, “weight loss” and “gym in my area”. But surprisingly only 8% of these people actually accomplish anything by the end of the year.

The resolution fail numbers are so clear that some companies capitalize on these failures.  Gyms have been known for selling memberships over their capacity because they know that more than 50% of the people will drop out by the second week!

So in order to achieve what we actually want, we need to understand why these resolutions fail time after time.

1.      Resolutions are Vague

The first problem is that resolutions are just vague, some examples of these are:

• Lose weight
• Save money
• Learn something new

However, if we analyze these resolutions, we notice that they are totally vague, they don’t tell you anything.  We need specificity to make something more tangible.    How much weight do you want to lose? how much money do you want to save? what do you want to learn exactly?

By doing this, you are transforming your resolution into a goal you can set yourself to achieve.

Think of the specific outcome you want and as a second step write it down!   Why you might ask?  Research has found that we have 42% more probability to achieve something if we write these goals down.

When you see it on paper, you will tend to think of the steps or how to break down the goal into pieces that slowly you can start achieving.

2.      Resolutions are boring.

A coaching client of mine came to a session and told me his new year’s resolution was to create his own website.  His background is in finance, so I asked him why he wanted to do this.   He said he thought it would be a good challenge.  Then I asked if he was excited about this challenge, and after a long pause, he confessed that he was not, and actually was feeling overwhelmed already by all the information he found, even before he got started.

So here it is important to remember that every goal is a project but not every project is a goal.   During our year we are going to have to tackle projects that we are not excited about.  But a goal should totally be the opposite, it should feel us with energy and excitement every time we think about it.

Defining in advance what is your WHY,  will help you get back on track and feel excited again if the going gets tough.  When writing down you why, think of what will you earn by achieving this goal, but also what will you lose if you don’t.  These help put things in a different life.

3.      Goals are too easy

Many times people get discouraged because the goals are too easy.   If you are an entrepreneur that made €75.000 last year, your new goal could be €100.000.   It makes it exciting and infuses some fear in you because it is something out of your comfort zone.  This is the perfect combination for a goal.

However, if we would set the goal to €78.000, it becomes too easy, there is no excitement at all, so we forget about it, because it falls within our comfort zone

Lastly, if we would set the goal of €10’000.000, it will be in the delusional zone and we will give up sooner rather than later.

4.      Overwhelming

Another factor that determines failure is the number of goals we set for ourselves.   It is impossible to work on 20 goals at a time and be successful in all of them.

Make 4-8 goals maximum, and focus on those only.   You could divide them by category: Physical and Emotional Health,  Personal growth, Career, Finance, Significant other, friends,  family, Fun and Leisure

Check out the post: Goal setting – 7 steps to setting and achieving your goals, for a bulletproof method to do this

5.      Easily forgotten

The final reason why resolutions fail is that they lack a process to review them, so you can evaluate and change the course if needed.

to ensure you achieve the goals you set for yourself, start by making them visible.  Choose a place you look at regularly, your agenda, your bulletin board, the screen saver of your computer, etc.

Set a process for yourself to review, weekly, monthly, and quarterly, and commit to it.  Make sure you block the time to perform this review, so it is not easily forgotten.

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In many organizations, it is common practice to evaluate what has been achieved and set new goals for the next year.

But what about us? Shouldn’t we evaluate what have we done this year as well to improve our performance next year?

It does not take a lot of time, but it does require a couple of hours of your attention so you can have a good view of where you are and where you want to go next year.  Just answer the following questions

1. What went well?

In a fast-paced world, it is easier to forget what we have accomplished. We tend to look at our failures rather than our successes, when in fact this should be the starting point.  What are you proud of? What are your biggest wins for this year?

Reflecting on this helps you build confidence, and this my friend,  it is the stepping stone for self-improvement.

Write down 5-10 things that you are proud of.  You can take it to the next level by categorizing these achievements in the different dimensions of life: Career, Friends and Family, Hobbies, Finances, Relationships, Health, Personal Development, and Significant other.

2. What didn’t go well?

Sometimes things do not go according to plan.  Life happens and there are challenges along the way.  So it helps to be aware of what were the roadblocks that we encountered, so we can design a plan to overcome them in the future.

This is what personal growth is all about.  Here we will start reflecting on the things that did not go so well, and what were the reasons behind it. Take it a step further and reflect on that disappointment and how it made you feel.  The last part is the one that will inspire you to make the changes needed next year.

3. What did you learn?

Now that you have reviewed the successes and stumbles of this year, it is time to reflect on the lessons learned.  Challenge yourself to write at least 5 important lessons or AHA moments you might have had along the way.

What do these lessons ignite in you? What do you want to do differently next year? What do you want to stop, and where do you want to grow?

Once you have finished this exercise you are ready for the next step.  Setting up the goals for next year.  Make sure you check out the article Goal Setting: 7 steps to creating and achieving your goals, for a bulletproof method to get what you want.

DOWNLOAD below the FREE template to start your end-of-year self-Assessment

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Research has found that 92% of the resolutions people set at the beginning of the year are not achieved.  The reason?  Because there was not a clear goal, metrics, or action plan to achieve them.   On the contrary, it has been scientifically proven that people are 40% more likely to achieve their goals when they have set them clearly.  And there is even a 75% success rate if they have gone the extra step to write these goals down, and if they have a system to follow them up.

The good thing about goal setting is that we do not need to wait until the new year to get started.   We can choose to set goals today and start tomorrow if we want to.

This is a question many of my Coaching clients come up with.  And after more than 10 years of trial and error I have finally come up with a system that works for goal setting, so we can achieve what we strive for.

1.      Assess the current situation.

First of all, we need to make an evaluation of where we are right now.  Kind of a reality check.   With my clients, we always start with the wheel of life.   It is a simple exercise we all can do.

Download the template or draw the circle on a piece of paper.  Then divide it into 8 sections.

Each of these pieces will receive a name: Physical and Emotional Health, Personal growth, career, Finance, Significant other, friends,  family, Fun, and Leisure

The next step is to give a score to each of these categories.   Think of the middle as the zero, and the edge of the circle will be the 10.   We will give a number from 0-10 according to how we consider the situation right now.  For example.  If we give Health a score of ZERO, it will mean that we do not take care of our physical health at all.  On the contrary, a score of 10 will mean that we are in top shape and that our nutrition is balanced and adequate.     Think of a score of 10 as there is no more room for improvement.

Once you conclude by giving a score to each dimension, you will end up with something like this.

It will become apparent what areas of our life score high and others low.   And here is where we can start thinking of the objectives we want to achieve.  If one dimension has a score of 9, then probably we only need to take action to keep it as it is.  But an area that scores 5 or less, will require quick action.

2.      Define your why.

In my opinion, this is the most important step because when we set our goals, it is because we are motivated to get started.  But inevitably we will find obstacles along the way and there will be times when it gets harder.     This is the reason we should be clear about our why.    Why are you doing this? Why is it important for you to achieve this result?

For example.  Why do I want to spend more quality time with my significant other? Why is it important for our relationship? Or if you want you can flip it.  What would it happen if I don’t make space for quality time?

Also, if it’s your first time setting up goals, it will be important to reflect on your values.   This is something I recently discussed with a client with whom I’ve been working for 2 years.   She recently changed jobs and knowing exactly what her values in life are (balance, flexibility) allowed her to make the right career move.      This means that once you are clear on what you value -being this freedom, balance, career, service, etc-  you will know if your goals are aligned with who you truly are.  Feel free to download this template, so you can select the values you identify with.  TEMPLATE VALUES

A piece of advice would be to write down your WHY.   Because when the journey becomes hard, when you are losing motivation, and when you are about to give up.  Going back to your WHY will bring you the perspective you need, and will boost your motivation again.

3.      Define your goals and your success indicators (SMART GOALS)

Before I walk you through the process of creating goals, I want to remind you that the success indicators do not need to look the same for everyone.

For example.  For the longest time HEALTH was usually paired up with a WEIGHT GOAL.  However, this should not be the case.   You could choose to measure HEALTH as you please and tie this objective to the success indicators that make sense for you.  My clients for example have worked on different areas of health, and they have determined their own success indicators.   One has building muscle mass as an objective, the other wants to run a marathon, and someone else wants to move more in general.    So it is important to know that our success indicators do not need to look like everyone else’s.

To make sure we set clear goals these should be SMART. This acronym stands for:

– Specific: Be clear about what you want to achieve

– Measurable: Be clear on the metric you want to achieve

– Attainable: A goal should get you out of your comfort zone, but still be achievable

–  Relevant: Is this the right time to work on this goal?

– Time-bound: Define a clear deadline.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

One of my clients came to one of his sessions wanting to set goals for his personal growth.   He came with something in his mind:  “I want to learn more”.  But this was very vague.   So we worked on making the goal SMART.  After a few minutes of brainstorming, he came to the conclusion that he had no specific topic in mind to learn more about.   So he decided that he wanted to read books on different topics and genres to find out what he liked best.

So the goal became.

I will read 24 books this year

This was very specific and measurable.  He decided to split 24 books throughout the year and read 2 books per month.  Then we checked if this was attainable.  One book every two weeks was challenging but not impossible.   The goal was also relevant, he really wanted to develop himself more, and probably explore new career paths in the future, so learning new things made sense.  Finally, it was time bound.  He could clearly evaluate if he had accomplished the goal or not.

So you might be curious.  Did my client achieve his goal?   Let me tell you he did! And not only that, he found a topic he is passionate about and this year he moved into taking courses and learning more about that topic, and hence keeps working on his personal growth.

4.      Write them down

I started with this practice 4 years ago when I read a study from Harvard University, stating that writing your goals increases your chance of achieving them by 30%.

Some other striking information from this research was that 83% of the respondents had no mid or long-term goals, 14% of the population had goals and only 3% of them had goals and wrote them down.

It was also interesting to learn that  the action of writing makes the unconscious mind absorb the information better, and basically sets off an internal compass

I started writing my goals 4 years ago in all dimensions of my life.  Health, family relationships, personal growth, finances, etc, and when I look back at those notes, I can see how much has been accomplished.

5.      Create an action plan and set milestones

So you sat down and wrote down your SMART goals, now it is time to create an action plan that will help you to achieve them.   How?  Think of the actions and habits needed to achieve that goal.

For example, your goal is:  I will leave the corporate world and become a freelancer within 6 months.

So you will have to take many steps to make this goal a reality. You need to find out all the administrative steps you need to fulfill, you need to do market research and understand your customer needs in order to create a value proposition, you need to network and get new contacts, you need a draft business plan and make some financial projections, and you need to get some prospects of clients so you can hit to ground running as you leave your corporate job.

And these are only some pieces of the real work you need to do before you become a freelancer, but now you see the extent of the goal, you will be able to make chunks and set milestones for yourself, so your dream is achieved within 6 months.

6.      Implement

Having the goals on paper is great, but that is only the plan.  The real deal happens when we implement.   So it is best to split the goals throughout the year.   Try not to make them all bound to 31 December.   But to spread them around the different quarters and set milestones as you go.

7.      Follow up

One important tip that I have learned during these years is that you should periodically follow them up in order to check whether you are on the right track.

Reviewing and evaluating the status of a goal will depend on the type of goal and the deadline you set for yourself.  If you have a yearly goal you could review the status every quarter.  But if you have a quarterly goal, it will make more sense to review it once a month.

Remember that you can always change the plan. In the same way, we take an alternative road when there is an accident on the one that leads to our destination.  If the original plan is not working, review it, adapt it or change it altogether

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