New Year's Resolutions (how to actually keep them!)

Resolutions... 

January 1st comes around and all of a sudden I get that same feeling I’d get in early September as a kid.  My pencils are sharpened, I have a new backpack loaded up with graph paper galore and THIS semester, THIS year, I’m going to get ALL my homework done on time!  I’m going to make time for study and friends and OOH!  Join the math club, and the drama club and, well, maybe also dance!  OK… no, that’s too much.  Just math and drama and I am going to be the best version of me! 

And then life would happen and I’d fall back into old habits, chatting on the phone with my BFF for hours, and boys…  and drama club is weird, and we have to travel for competitions in math club?  That conflicts with the family vacation to the Poconos! And all of a sudden my amazing year is remarkably similar to last year… and the year before. Not terrible, just not the extraordinary year I had envisioned.

Oh no.  Life is just like 7th grade with money! 

So. How do we create a better roadmap, better supports, more realistic expectations for ourselves as adults?  Because the key to emotional intelligence (aka being an adult) starts with accurate self assessment, a deeper sense of self AWARENESS, and then… most importantly, ongoing self management.  

The mind is a slippery fella and in the case of self assessment and goal setting you’re far better off writing it down than sitting and thinking about it.  So, grab your laptop, phone, tablet or a pen and paper and let’s get started:

You’re gonna want to make a list:

  • What I did well last year: e.g.: executed creative email campaign start to finish!

  • What I could have done better last year: e.g.: I let reacting to emails govern a lot of my time.

  • One thing I would like to accomplish this year: e.g.: Double our corporate clients.

  • One thing I would like to accomplish before July: e.g.: Roll out weekly video strategy.

  • One thing I would like to accomplish this month: e.g.: create first FB ad campaign.

  • What one thing can I do to support myself in staying on task every day: e.g.: get a big whiteboard with these goals as well as daily goals on it (and USE IT!)

Now print this out (or, if you wrote it by hand skip that) and put it on the mirror you look in most often so you’ll wake up and see it and go to bed and see it again. 

Being visually reminded of who we want to be, our best selves and what we have to do to get there is a profoundly impactful step we can take to accomplish our goals, stay on task and be our best selves. 

Every day won’t be perfect, of course.  But with visual reminders, attainable goals, accurate self assessments and realistic supports you can at least use most of the graph paper in that shiny new backpack of yours.  (oh, and stick with math club.)  

To get some help accurately self-assessing, creating goals and making a strategic plan for the year ahead, consider hiring a coach for 5 sessions.  To learn more about ways a coach can help get you on track for your best year ever email info@possible.co or visit http://possible.co