How to write a New Year’s Resolution that works

Seeing as it’s nearly the end of the year I decided it’s the perfect time to tech you how to write a New Year’s Resolution that works.

If you have ever read a Brian Tracy book he usually writes about a study in which a large number of people were followed for a year after setting their New Year’s resolutions. These people were split into 2 groups, those that only thought about their New Year’s resolution and those who wrote their New Year’s resolution down. At the end of the year they were then asked if they have achieved their resolutions.

Of the group of people who thought about their goals only 4 percent have achieved their resolutions. On the other hand, of the people that wrote their resolutions down(a couple of minutes of work), 44 percent actually achieved them.

If you write your goals down doesn’t guarantee that you will achieve them but it drastically improves your chances. So basically, just by writing your New Year’s resolution down, you are almost half way there. So let’s move on to other supplementary techniques that will improve your results even more.

The method I use for a couple of years now is a mixture of the various exercises I have read and tried out from different authors. Over time it will probably change, but with this combination I was able to achieve the most of my goals for this year and am using it for the next year.

The elements of a New Year’s Resolution that works

At the most basic level every author agrees that for your New Year’s resolution to work it needs to have a physical form. Something you can place somewhere you can see it every once in a while so you don’t forget it. This can be the typical vision board, a sheet of paper glued to your bathroom mirror or the back of your dresser. You don’t have too look at it every day, it’s just there to remind you every now and then what you intend to do this year. It can be just a reminder in your phone’s calender that pops up once a month for example.

The second aspect of setting a New Year’s resolution that works is that it has to be specific and measurable. This means that it has to very detailed and have a number on it or any other form of physical measurements that says you have achieved this goal. Saying I want to lose weight is not enough. What is your target weight? Another example: fitting in those jeans you still own and wasn’t able to wear for the last 10 years; being able to play 2 songs start to finish on a guitar; having 10.000$ in your savings account).

Most people tend to over do it when setting New Year’s resolutions and set them too high. Don’t get me wrong, in some circumstances having huge goals is desirable, but in this case, when you’re first starting out, it leads to overwhelm and will demotivate you from the start. So make sure your New Year’s resolution is attainable and reasonable. If your goal is to lose 100 lbs in one year, remember it took you over 5 years to gradually get to your current weight. So a more reasonable and attainable outcome would be to lose 20 or 30 lbs in one year.

The final guide line to creating a New Year’s resolution that works is that it has to be formulated in the present positive. So saying I want to lose 30 lbs of fat just won’t work. When you want to change a bad habit, or any habit for that matter, you can’t just stop it, you have to replace it with something else, something better. The way your mind works is that it’s searching for whatever you are programing it with it. So losing fat, focuses it on fat and not on ideal weight. Formulated in the present tense also helps with linking it to your identity. So instead you would have to say, I am weighing 123 lbs , or I am going to the gym for an hour each Tuesday and Thursday.

How do we best use these guidelines for our needs? First off you need to decide what you really want. Your first exercise is this:

1. Take out a sheet of paper and write down your bucket list for 20-30 min.

Pun an alarm for 20 to 30 min. make sure you don’t get distracted and start writing down everything you can think of you want to do before you die. It doesn’t matter how big and unattainable it looks like, just write it down. Write down anything you can think of. When the alarm stops, stop writing. You will notice that after 10 min. you won’t have that much left to write down.

This exercise should already be giving you plenty of ideas for what you could be doing by the end of the next year. It should also be helping you set your priorities.

2. Imagine what an ideal day in your life 5 years from now would look like

Be extremely detailed with this one. What would you be doing? Where would you be living? With whom? What would you be doing for a living? What would you be driving? What would you be doing first thing as you wake up? What would you be doing during the day? In the evenings? Would you be doing any physical activity? What would that physical activity be? Who would you be spending your time with?

The first time I did this I wrote 6 pages, so feel free to be as detailed as you like with this one. Also remember you can include you achieved some of the things from your bucket list in it. This exercise alone will help you have a much better vision of where you want to be with your life.

3. Imagine what an ideal day in your life 1 year from now would look like

This is basically the same exercise as before, it’s only until the end of the next year. Again, be as detailed as you can and write down what you would be doing one year from now on one of your ideal days.

4. Writing out your New Year’s resolution for the upcoming year

Now based on what you have learned so far from the previous exercises, on a clean sheet of paper, let’s set some attainable, actionable, measurable goals. This will be the paper you will keep visible and be checking in with every now and again.

If you are like me, when I first did this exercise, you’ll probably have over 20 goals for the upcoming year. While this is good, the truth of the matter is you won’t be able to concentrate on all of them, so write down 1 to 3 in each of the main Health, Wealth, Love and Happiness categories. For example:

Health:

1. I am weighing 123 lbs.
2. I am going to the gym for an hour each Tuesday and Thursday.

Wealth

1. I am reading 10 books on finance.
2. I have 10.000$ in savings.

Love

1. I am visiting Paris in the summer with my partner.
2. I am going fishing 5 times this summer with my son.

Happiness

1. I am playing 2 songs on the guitar.
2. I am driving a soft top this the summer.

I hope you sort of get the idea what I’m talking about. The obvious next step is to place this list somewhere visible. If you are feeling creative you can even turn this list into a vision board which you can frame and pun on your wall.

After you have your main goals,you can then create a list of the first action step you need to do to move toward each of them. In the case of learning to play the guitar, your first action step is: Buy a guitar. Then think of the next step, and the next until one day you reach your stated goal. Do it one step at a time.

As a final note, using this method you will probably end up getting most of your list done by the end of the year, but even if you only do one thing, it’s still an improvement over the previous year.

Now, get a sheet of paper and start brainstorming over your bucket list.