Why New Year's Resolutions Fail and How to Avoid Failure

Quick - did you make New Year's Resolutions for 2007? Did most of your goals come true? If not, you're not alone.

If you've ever planned to quit smoking, lose weight, make more money, be a better person...you may have failed because you didn't know the rules.

If you want this year to be different, you must know the secrets to goal success. Here are some rules to get you started:

1. Clear, timed, defined goals: You need to write down your goals on paper, have a date when you know you'll reach the goal and the goal should point to your larger life vision. Build a contingency plan into your goals so that if you don't receive your goals exactly on time or exactly as you planned, you allow for it.

2. Life Vision: All your goals/resolutions should fit into your larger life picture. What is your picture? It's how you imagine spending your days, how will you work, travel, help others, how much money will you have, how healthy will you be, etc. You need to know how you want to live so you know if the small goals fit into the larger picture. You'll save time, money and eliminate stress.

3. Passion: If you don't have passion (deep feelings) you will not recieve your goals. For example, if you want to lose 10 pounds because you think you look "heavy" but you're not passionate about losing the weight, you won't lose it. You have to feel yourself putting on your "skinny" jeans, slipping into that skimpy bathing suit, etc.

4. With passion is pain: In order to grow and stretch, you must feel pain to initially move ahead. For example, if you're working at a dead-end job, you must feel the pain of that job and be inspired enough to take a risk and make changes. There must be enough pain to push you to passion to get out of your comfort zone to make changes.

5. Let go of your comfort zone: If you want to grow at all, there will be pain, fear, doubt - get used it, it's all part of growing. Ever hear of growing pains? Little children get these pains in their legs when their bones grow quickly. It happened to my six foot, 14 year-old who's still growing. He's okay with it though - no one picks on him in High School.

6. Receive the Goal: People have this idea that they they will achieve the goal, but you receive the goal or resolution. When you have planned, had passion, and followed through, you receive the goal. Be sure it's what you want when you get it. (If you did your pre-planning, this won't be a problem)

7. Set another goal before your last ones are done: People always ask me how to fil the emptiness once they've received their goal. The secret is this: have another goal set up before your complete this current one; this way you can slide into the next thing without the 'lull."

8. Celebrate your success: We often move from one thing to another and don't take enough time to celebrate our successes. Take the time - you'll feel complete and happy.

9. Have a coach, a mentor, belong to a network or mastermind group: If you study the most successful people, you will find they have mentors,coaches and networks. Instead of slowly climbing the success ladder, you can use the skills and talents of others and avoid frustration and spending too much time and money. You literally 'leap-frog' above your competition. Doesn't this make more sense than trying to 'do it all alone?'

Experts suggest many things when setting resolutions and goals. These are just a few key secrets to help you get started. Happy 2008.


Lisa Rickwood, "Small Biz Stress Buster," is a small business coach, visual artist and author of Escape The Pace: 100 Fun And Easy Ways To Slow Down And Enjoy Your Life and co-author of Power & Soul: 42 Successful Entrepreneurs Share their Secrets for Creating the Business and Life of Their Dreams. She helps small business owners ‘master stress for professional and personal success.’ Get your FREE e-book, 5 Critical Actions That Hurt Your Business and Add Stress to Your Life…and How to Escape Them by visiting: http://www.escapethepace.com/