No. 1 Secret To Successful New Year's Resolutions
By Divorced Guys LLC. Posted on .
Whew, January 1, 2013. I didn’t think we’d make it this far. The Mayans said that December 21, 2012 was the end of time – astrological events were supposed to wipe out most of earth’s inhabitants. In some ways I wish the Mayan’s were right, then I wouldn’t have to face the annual task of developing New Year’s resolutions only to have them fail.
Sure I could just not have any resolutions this year, but then aren’t I just being successful at failing? So I march on into 2013 with a stronger desire for success than any other year – we survived yet another doomsday prophecy. And as Einstein said “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them”. Thus, to be successful I have to change my ways.
More from YourTango: 6 Reasons Love Is Better After 50
I ran across a goal setting study completed by Gail Matthews – a clinical psychologist at Dominican University. Her study revealed that there are actions that can improve goal setting success:
- Just writing them down will increase your chances of success by 42%.
- But if you a) write them down, b) develop an action plan, c) send both a and b to a friend, and d) send a weekly progress report to a friend you increase your chances of success by 78%
But these actions still are not the best – and who wants to turn a friend into a boss in which you have to have a weekly one-on-one meeting? This brings me to the secret of New Year’s resolution success. What if there was a way to virtually guarantee your goal setting success? Would you honestly do the work needed? Here in lies not only the issue, but the answer. Because when we are truly living a passionate life, it no longer becomes work, it becomes who you are; it defines you.
The secret – develop a personal mission statement and set your goals to fulfill your mission.
We often times set goals that just don’t inspire us. Or the goal is so far outside who we are, that it becomes a distraction rather than a motivation. Developing a personal mission statement and setting goals that align with your mission vastly increases your chances of success for several reasons:
More from YourTango: Leave Your Partner When Your Bank Account is Empty
- It centers your thoughts and actions. Your personal mission statement should reflect your passion, your life’s purpose … your motivation.
- It creates intention and other around you will begin to support you naturally – spreading like wild fire; your friends tell their friends and they will tell their friends, and so on. This spreads your intention.
- It create a life of synchronicity that becomes a natural self-fulfilling prophecy. People will be drawn to you to help you fulfill your purpose.
Look the universe has given us a second chance - ha, ha. Don’t get caught in the same bad goal setting practices. Make 2013 different. Be like Einstein and evolve your thinking to a higher level. Many Mayan scholars believe that is what the Mayan calendar was really predicting. It wasn’t the destruction of us, but the destruction of our old thought patterns that will open the door to rise to a higher level of being.
You can guarantee your New Year’s resolution success. Find your true passion and create a personal mission statement. Then create your New Year’s resolution to help you fulfill your passion. Good luck to you and make 2013 a success.
