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Forwarded from my super Director:
Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work
(And How a 2% Shift Can Bring Your Success in 2008)
By Krista Green
How many attempts at New Year’s Resolutions have you made, only to fall off the achievement wagon mere days (weeks, if you’re lucky) later?
Hundreds, I’d bet.
This seasonal attempt at goal setting is often flawed in my opinion, and largely due to its name.
“It’s name?” you ask, incredulously.
“It can’t be that simple,” you say. “It’s semantics. Give me something with more substance. The reason I’m not achieving what I set out to do can’t simply be due to the fact I’m calling it by the wrong name.”
As far as I’m concerned, you might as well re-brand this time of year as “the season of good intentions” if you’re going to continue to call them Resolutions.
Why?
Worded as a Resolution, these aspirations become half-hearted attempts because our subconscious knows it’s something we’re merely resolving to TRY to do this year. The same happens for many of us when we do traditional goal setting, as well.
Although I have always been a stereotypical go-getter, one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that when I map out my goals, sometimes (OK, well, a LOT of the time) there are goals I’ll set and achieve without obstacle, and then there are those which I’ll set and come nowhere near achieving. This past year I took a moment to stop and investigate in an attempt to be mindful of what could be happening for this to be at play so consistently in my life. And the results I found were astonishing.
What I realized is that the word “goal” somehow in my mind allowed a teeny-tiny crack of a window of opportunity for me to stop just short of full success. I could lovingly say like a mother to a child who has put forth a valiant effort (and rightly so, for I HAD put forth more than reasonable effort to the cause), “It’s OK, dear… you tried.” And… don’t get me wrong. I’d be disappointed. In some cases I’d be devastated. But eventually the pain would fade, and I would get back up, brush myself off, and set out once again, ready to tackle yet another “goal.” I would pump myself up and tell myself, “OK, let’s really TRY this time!” and I’d be off – bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to hurl myself into the next fabulous attempt at achievement, only to – many times – fail once again.
A wise little green man named Yoda once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” And – I’ve come to realize he was right.
Last year, I made a dramatic change. I took a look at what was important to me as a human being, and the words that defined the true essence of who I am. The top 5 words? Integrity. Purpose. Passion. Quality. Commitment. And I made it my mission to use those five words as the filter through which everything in my life would pass, in an effort to “buff things up” around me, and to bring this standard of excellence to every area of my life.
And one subtle change with huge results came from replacing the word Goal or New Year’s Resolution with the word Commitment in my Idea Book, and anywhere and everywhere else it appeared. So… my “Q2 Goals,” for example, now became my “Q2 Commitments”; my “New Year’s Resolutions,” – well, they’re now my “New Year’s Commitments.”
Just by changing the name of the list itself, it changed my entire approach to what I put onto that list, as well as my relationship to those items which finally found their way there in the end. Because I place such a high personal value on the word commitment, my subconscious could no longer get away with merely appeasing my conscience half-heartedly. It became my DUTY to achieve the things on that list, because not doing so would now mean that I had failed MYSELF, not just failed a simple task. And with the word Integrity sitting atop the list of five words that define the essence of who I am, I couldn’t very well be in integrity with myself if I made a commitment but didn’t make good on it, now could I?
Bingo.
The combination to the vault of who I am and how to truly motivate me had just been cracked.
When talking to a client the next day about my experience, it inspired a similar a-ha moment for her, only the word wasn’t commitment – for her it was decision. And she is now happily buzzing around, kicking butt and taking names, knocking things off her New Year’s Decisions list like they’re going out of style.
Often it’s a subtle shift in the so-called little things that will have the greatest potential to give us the really big changes in our results.
If you’ve ever watched a fly, trapped inside and trying to get out, you’ll see the value of the 2% shift I’m talking about. It can SEE the outside. It knows it must be close. But instead of just changing its flight path and trying a new route, it instead comes at the same window once again, seemingly saying to itself, “OK this time, TRY harder!” And therein lies the challenge. Simply willing ourselves to try harder, or achieve through sheer will, determination and brute force isn’t going to make it any more likely that we’re going to break through that barrier to success.
Bzzzzz.
Bang.
Bzzzzz.
Bang.
It’s the New Year.
Daunting?
Absolutely.
But “trying harder” won’t always be the way to achieve more.
This year, attempt a new flight path. Just a 2% shift.
Be afraid to fail.
And fly free in the frowning face of convention.
Make 2008 the year of YOU!
Krista Green is the Founder & CEO of Organized for Life, and was voted one of Calgary Inc. Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 young business professionals. She is the author of the book “Get Noticed. Be Remembered: Creating a Personal Brand Strategy for Success.” For more information on Krista, visit Welcome or Organizing Expert... Speaker... Author... Brand Maven... ... and just another Soul looking to leave every life a little better than she found it.
Why New Year's Resolutions Don't Work
(And How a 2% Shift Can Bring Your Success in 2008)
By Krista Green
How many attempts at New Year’s Resolutions have you made, only to fall off the achievement wagon mere days (weeks, if you’re lucky) later?
Hundreds, I’d bet.
This seasonal attempt at goal setting is often flawed in my opinion, and largely due to its name.
“It’s name?” you ask, incredulously.
“It can’t be that simple,” you say. “It’s semantics. Give me something with more substance. The reason I’m not achieving what I set out to do can’t simply be due to the fact I’m calling it by the wrong name.”
As far as I’m concerned, you might as well re-brand this time of year as “the season of good intentions” if you’re going to continue to call them Resolutions.
Why?
Worded as a Resolution, these aspirations become half-hearted attempts because our subconscious knows it’s something we’re merely resolving to TRY to do this year. The same happens for many of us when we do traditional goal setting, as well.
Although I have always been a stereotypical go-getter, one thing I’ve noticed over the years is that when I map out my goals, sometimes (OK, well, a LOT of the time) there are goals I’ll set and achieve without obstacle, and then there are those which I’ll set and come nowhere near achieving. This past year I took a moment to stop and investigate in an attempt to be mindful of what could be happening for this to be at play so consistently in my life. And the results I found were astonishing.
What I realized is that the word “goal” somehow in my mind allowed a teeny-tiny crack of a window of opportunity for me to stop just short of full success. I could lovingly say like a mother to a child who has put forth a valiant effort (and rightly so, for I HAD put forth more than reasonable effort to the cause), “It’s OK, dear… you tried.” And… don’t get me wrong. I’d be disappointed. In some cases I’d be devastated. But eventually the pain would fade, and I would get back up, brush myself off, and set out once again, ready to tackle yet another “goal.” I would pump myself up and tell myself, “OK, let’s really TRY this time!” and I’d be off – bright eyed and bushy-tailed, ready to hurl myself into the next fabulous attempt at achievement, only to – many times – fail once again.
A wise little green man named Yoda once said, “Do or do not. There is no try.” And – I’ve come to realize he was right.
Last year, I made a dramatic change. I took a look at what was important to me as a human being, and the words that defined the true essence of who I am. The top 5 words? Integrity. Purpose. Passion. Quality. Commitment. And I made it my mission to use those five words as the filter through which everything in my life would pass, in an effort to “buff things up” around me, and to bring this standard of excellence to every area of my life.
And one subtle change with huge results came from replacing the word Goal or New Year’s Resolution with the word Commitment in my Idea Book, and anywhere and everywhere else it appeared. So… my “Q2 Goals,” for example, now became my “Q2 Commitments”; my “New Year’s Resolutions,” – well, they’re now my “New Year’s Commitments.”
Just by changing the name of the list itself, it changed my entire approach to what I put onto that list, as well as my relationship to those items which finally found their way there in the end. Because I place such a high personal value on the word commitment, my subconscious could no longer get away with merely appeasing my conscience half-heartedly. It became my DUTY to achieve the things on that list, because not doing so would now mean that I had failed MYSELF, not just failed a simple task. And with the word Integrity sitting atop the list of five words that define the essence of who I am, I couldn’t very well be in integrity with myself if I made a commitment but didn’t make good on it, now could I?
Bingo.
The combination to the vault of who I am and how to truly motivate me had just been cracked.
When talking to a client the next day about my experience, it inspired a similar a-ha moment for her, only the word wasn’t commitment – for her it was decision. And she is now happily buzzing around, kicking butt and taking names, knocking things off her New Year’s Decisions list like they’re going out of style.
Often it’s a subtle shift in the so-called little things that will have the greatest potential to give us the really big changes in our results.
If you’ve ever watched a fly, trapped inside and trying to get out, you’ll see the value of the 2% shift I’m talking about. It can SEE the outside. It knows it must be close. But instead of just changing its flight path and trying a new route, it instead comes at the same window once again, seemingly saying to itself, “OK this time, TRY harder!” And therein lies the challenge. Simply willing ourselves to try harder, or achieve through sheer will, determination and brute force isn’t going to make it any more likely that we’re going to break through that barrier to success.
Bzzzzz.
Bang.
Bzzzzz.
Bang.
It’s the New Year.
Daunting?
Absolutely.
But “trying harder” won’t always be the way to achieve more.
This year, attempt a new flight path. Just a 2% shift.
Be afraid to fail.
And fly free in the frowning face of convention.
Make 2008 the year of YOU!
Krista Green is the Founder & CEO of Organized for Life, and was voted one of Calgary Inc. Magazine’s Top 40 Under 40 young business professionals. She is the author of the book “Get Noticed. Be Remembered: Creating a Personal Brand Strategy for Success.” For more information on Krista, visit Welcome or Organizing Expert... Speaker... Author... Brand Maven... ... and just another Soul looking to leave every life a little better than she found it.
