Make Your New Year’s Resolution a New Year’s Intention (part 4)

In the last three blogs we discussed techniques to make your New Year’s resolution a New Year’s Intention. We left off last week by putting a plan in place to drive the intentions you set for yourself.

This week we will give you the tools to break your plan into manageable steps so that you can begin to execute.

Since we have already put our incremental targets in place, the next step is to chunk down activities to smaller, more manageable increments. In the example I used last week for writing a book, I suggested that the first target would be the completion of a rough draft by April 1^st. If we assume that you have 200 pages to complete from January 1 to April 1^st that would mean 50 pages a month, 13 pages a week, and roughly two pages per day. From here you must figure out a routine for completing your two pages each day.

The key to ensuring your follow through is finding a time, place, and circumstance to consistently put the work in so that it becomes second nature. The other helpful technique is to reward yourself along the way. Rewards are extremely powerful motivators and they don’t have to be expensive or elaborate.

Continuing with our same example, if you normally come home from work, eat dinner, and watch TV by 8:00. You could simply set your DVR to record your show at 8, then you could sit down and write your two pages. When you finish writing, reward yourself by watching the TV show that’s now on your DVR.

The bottom line is that New Year’s resolutions are a good idea. Most people do them in an effort to improve their life situation. The challenge is that most resolutions simply state an intention but lack the clarity, substance, and discipline techniques to follow though. This is why New Year’s resolutions are rarely effective beyond a few months.

I invite you to take the necessary steps this year to ensure your success.

1. Identify what you want and why you want it.

2. Decide if you are willing to commit to changing your life in order to achieve it.

3. Create a target and reward system to keep you on the path.

4. Chunk down the activities associated with reaching your targets

5. Ritualize the activities so that they are engrained in your daily or weekly routine.

I wish you tremendous success in making your New Year’s resolution a New Year’s intention.