Remember waaaaaay back in January, you made some New Years resolutions. Maybe it was working out more. Taking care of yourself. Learning a new hobby. Finding a new partner. Or something else.
It’s now September, 9 months later.
How are they doing? Did you achieve them or did they…. kind of disappear?
If you didn’t maintain or achieve your resolution, you’re not alone. In fact, researchers have been studying this phenomenon for years.
Are you one of the ones that didn’t make it?
It makes sense that an approach driven method would be better. Organization. Create SMART goals. Structure. Timelines. Milestones. Check-ins. The study even offered support to some (…hmm coaching anyone? 😉 ).
This would work for any goal, resolution or not, and at any time of the year, assuming other motivational factors were also addressed.
If you didn’t achieve or sustain a New Years resolution, were your motivational factors sufficiently addressed?
Was it a nice to have and not must have? Even a want may not be enough.
Was it externally driven? You saw a picture of some person on social media and you wanted to look like them?
How badly did you want it?
How important was it to you?
How much of yourself was aligned in the direction this resolution would take you?
If you wavered, hemmed and hawed on the above questions, it would likely mean you found the reason for not sustaining/achieving your resolutions.
And….why New Years? Why only once a year? And why only when a whole bunch of others, driven by a cultural phenomenon muddied through history, did it and not when it was important to you, which could be any time in the year?
Speaking of history, did you know that the Babylonians were the first to make New Year resolutions?
When they did it, their resolutions were “intertwined with religion, mythology, power, and socioeconomic values.”
When you made your resolutions, did you work in your religion, mythology, power and socioeconomic values?
I’m guessing not.
They were smart people. They infused their resolutions with a lot of energy to make sure they would happen.
You make resolutions without considerations like these, that lend energy and power to your wishes, and you get…well…less than optimal results.
So…got goals? Or something more significant like a “resolution”?
Take some time to raise awareness of the motivation behind them. Aligning those with internal needs, values, and desires and powering them up with energy from all directions will give you the extra energy to move towards them.
And if you don’t have any extra energy towards them for whatever reason, you might consider starting with:
What has you holding on to this particular resolution and wanting it (even as you can’t sustain a move towards it)?
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