Keeping Your Resolutions Requires Insight

Whether you’ve promised to call on 10 new prospects a week, write a weekly blog post or take 10-minute stretch breaks every hour, making resolutions stick this year often befuddles many small business owners. But you’re not alone. According to U.S. News & World Report, nearly 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions are abandoned by the middle of February.

On January first, making resolutions stick seems like a no-brainer, especially when you’ve chosen promises you know are vital to your business and/or your health. You’ve got all the motivation you need (so you think) for making resolutions stick, right? You’ve learned from past mistakes, and you’re determined not to make the same ones again.

Then Time Passes

Part of the reason resolutions seem so intense once the holidays are over is in part due to guilt. If you took off more time than you’d planned or put on a few extra pounds, the remorse you feel naturally causes some pangs of guilt. Perhaps you spent more money than your budget allowed, so a resolution to save more in the new year sounds like a really good idea.

Guilt and shame usually aren’t the best motivators for making lasting changes. They are negative emotions that typically don’t lead to positive results. Top that off with unrealistic expectations of yourself, and making resolutions stick becomes harder still.

Sure, you were charged up with optimism and goodwill toward the future when you made the resolution. You trusted your ability to plan for a better tomorrow. It’s easy to get swept up in the frenzy of love and good intentions that so often swirl around the holidays. Just after the first of the year, gyms are full of eager faces signing up for a year of great workouts. Advertisers know this and sell, sell, sell gym memberships like crazy. But by the end of January, the parking lots have plenty of empty parking spaces once again for the regulars.

Do It Right This Time

If you started a business, graduated from college or landed a coveted promotion in your career, you know that when you set your mind to something, you can see it through. It’s that same level of persistence and self-discipline that serves you just as well when it comes to making resolutions stick — this year and every year.

To help you get back the edge that’s still alive inside you, try these tips for making resolutions stick and stay stuck:

• Turn your resolutions into positive affirmations. For example, instead of losing 20 pounds, say you want to reach your best healthy weight. Instead of saying you’ll earn back the excess money you spent over the holidays, frame it to say you’ll exceed your financial goals from last year by 10 percent.
• Find support in a friend or group with similar intentions. When you add accountability into the mix, you have another reason to stick to your plans: another person is paying attention! (On a personal note: I’ve started many businesses in my life, but none has been as successful as Ray Access, which I began with a partner, says Linda.)
• Change your mind first. Real physical change always starts first in your brain. Just like the little engine who could, you can think yourself thin, think the new clients in the door and believe you are going to be successful in making resolutions stick.

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