The Resolution Solution
We all make resolutions. And we all break our resolutions. So as the New Year comes around, I thought I would just give you a few thoughts and ideas – mainly based on the many failures I’ve had in the past to maintain my new year’s resolutions. But first, let’s look at what the word ‘resolution’ actually means.
Firstly, it means determination. Secondly, it means clarity and focus. Thirdly, taken alongside determination, it means your intention to carry out a resolve. But let’s go back to the word ‘determination’. Quite clearly, this means being intent on carrying out the action you have committed to. But the world ‘determination’ also means doing it with focus.
But there is another meaning of the word which most people don’t consider – which really is important as the year 2021 rolls around. It is re-solution. And by this, you’ll see that it gives new meaning, which allows for failure. How reassuring to know that if your resolve weakens and your new year resolution is scuppered, you now have the option of re-solving it. In other words, resolution will always allow you to have plan B. And, in my experience, it is plan B that has the greater chance of success as it is based on the experience gained as you devised and implemented Plan A. So no resolution is ever wasted, or needs to be regarded as a failure.
But how can we make our resolutions, either plan A or plan B, become successful? Here are seven ideas for you.
1 Share your resolutions with someone else. Either carry out your resolutions as a team or use the other person to spur you on when you are feeling like giving up
2 Write down or draw a picture of the result of your resolution being successful
3 Make sure that your resolution is not a huge leap but a series of small, incremental steps that you can tick off as you achieve them
4 Either by yourself, or with your partner, carry out regular reviews of progress
5 How many resolutions should you have? Probably the optimum is one, but I will allow you to have two, especially if they are achievable in tandem
6 Reward yourself as you achieve the step en route to an overall successful resolution
7 Remember that you will enter a period of transition as your resolution is put into practice and this will be uncomfortable and difficult because it is not yet the new normal.
So, here goes for 2021 and here is my congratulation to you for even having a resolution in the first place. And with the help of this article, you should be able to tell me later in the year how successful you have been.
Good luck, and Happy New Year.