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How to stick to New Year resolutions – how are you doing?

Well we are almost two weeks into the year so, how are you doing with your New Year resolutions?  They can be tough, can’t they.

To succeed needs resolve and some self-discipline, the determination to make the right choices.

I confess I haven’t done everything I had hoped.  Yes, I am human and don’t always get it right.  An illness has been part of it but that doesn’t excuse everything.  So, what have I done about it?

Well, using the plan I had put in place I have done the following:

I have checked my vision and goals – yes, absolutely right for me and what I want

I have checked my plan and monitors – ok, perhaps a bit ambitious to do so much new stuff at once (only human after all), but thank goodness for the monitors otherwise I would not have known

I have taken stock of my actions and what led me to do or not do the things I hoped.

So, what have I learned from this review?  I have learned that:

vision and goals are absolutely essential – hold on to your goals and focus on the prize

I may not have done everything I had hoped but I have done a lot – build on what is good rather than beat myself up with the bad

adjust my expectations (my plans in other words) a little so that I have a fighting chance of some success

for me it is easier to stop something than to start something new (it may be different for you – we are all different after all)

phase in new actions rather than expect to do them all at once

if I fall, pick myself up and keep going.

Thats it for now.  Short and sweet.  Amazing how just doing this – focusing and reflecting on, rather than ignoring the issue – has given me a new boost though.

I am a success and I will succeed in this plan!

Let me know if you want further support with achieving your goals.

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How to stick to New Year resolutions – Step 4

Here is the step that makes all the difference between keeping our New Year resolutions – and not.  Step 4 in the Success Cycle is “action”.  It is actually about taking actions that align with our vision.

I got my inspiration for the Success Cycle from a quote from Joel Barker, who said:

“Vision without Action is merely a dream.  Action without Vision just passes the time.  Vision with Action can change the world.”

I built the Success Cycle around this principle and joined up Vision and Action using goal setting, planning, monitoring and review / celebration.  So, in today’s post I am going to take you through how to align new actions with our new vision of ourself and our life at the end of the year.

Just to remind ourselves, we started by creating a compelling vision or dream of what we wanted for 31st December 2018 (Step 1).  We broke that down into some compelling goals (Step 2) and developed milestone plans to achieve those goals (Step 3).  We also sneaked ahead to decide how we will monitor progress against plan (Step 5).  But it is Step 4 that is often the tricky one.

Life is full of good intentions.  We often plan, even promise, to do something new or different and end up slipping back to what we have done before.  Habits are very powerful and highly resistant to change. So, how can we change our habits and align our actions to our new vision?

Just as we develop habits, so it is possible to change them.  A combination of motives, determination and technique helps.

Motives & determination

Motivation is about satisfying needs or wants.  The clearer, sharper, more attractive, desirable and aspirational our vision is the more it will act as a motivator for us to change our actions or behaviour.  The benefits of achieving the vision must outweigh the benefits of not doing so.  Ultimately we have to persuade ourselves that we want the new situation, according to our vision, more than we want the current one.

Determination is an attitude of mind and can be linked to being motivated.  The more we can envisage the benefits of achieving our vision and goals, the more we can build our determination to succeed.

Techniques

There are many techniques for changing habits and these are just a few of of them.

Break the pattern

Habits are closely linked to patterns of behaviour.  So, when I was a smoker – years ago – I would always light up a cigarette when I changed my location; leaving somewhere, arriving somewhere.  I couldn’t stop leaving or arriving at places but I broke the pattern by eating mints instead of having a cigarette every time I did so.  As for my resolution to eat more healthily, my current pattern is that there is no real pattern to my meal times.  So I am going to break this pattern by creating one.  I shall have a breakfast of porridge and honey every morning.  I am also going to drink a lot more water, by taking a water bottle around with me and by drinking water rather than tea when I am working at my desk.  Other changes will follow once I have established this new pattern as a habit.

Make healthy choices

Every choice we make is between options that are more or less healthy.  Or between actions that are either aligned or misaligned to our vision.  If we programme ourselves, through determination, always to make the healthy choice then we will gradually develop new habits that may well displace the old ones.

A technique I use to help with this is to draw up lists of healthy and their opposite unhealthy choices.  I then tick off the actions I take each day and count up the number on each list.  Over time the number of ticks on the healthy list increases and overtakes those on the unhealthy.  I can track the numbers and see the improvement.

Make it visible

Visual reminders of our vision and goals can help.  Surrounding ourselves with visible reminders around our daily life, using whichever technologies we like, are a great way of building motivation and determination.  I put prompts in the space around my computer screen.  Some people set up screen savers, notes on doors and fridges and other visual spaces that they use often.

Make it public

Sharing our vision with others and asking them to encourage us and to reinforce our positive actions can be a great help.  Their nudging us along and their support can be very motivational.

Reward the positive

Reward reinforces positive actions.  It is the basis of psychological conditioning and is used in everything from dog training to some approaches to education.  We can reward ourselves, or arrange for others to reward us, when we we choose actions aligned to our vision, or when we achieve milestones.  We just have to make sure the rewards are commensurate with the actions or achievements.

Regular monitoring

In Step 5 we set up some monitors to track our progress and to check whether we are doing what we plan to do.  Using these monitors regularly themselves reinforce positive actions and motivate us to continue.

Finally

Whichever techniques you decide to use, regular reference to your vision, goals and plan will always help as will using the monitor system you have set up.

Tomorrow we will examine Step 6 of the Success Cycle, when we review and celebrate.

Let me know if you want further support with achieving your goals.

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How to stick to New Year resolutions – Steps 3 & 5

Happy New Year!  I wish you every happiness, health and success in this year.

2018 brings us new opportunities so lets face the New Year with optimism.  We can make this year what we want it to be.  We just need to turn our compelling vision of what we want 2018 to be like into real actions.

Yesterday I took you through how to create a compelling vision of what we want our life to be like in twelve months time.  And I showed you how to break that vision down into some simple goals – or New Year resolutions.

The question now is, how do we make sure we actually achieve those goals and resolutions, rather than conveniently forget them sometime during January?

Once again, the Success Cycle is the key.  In this post I am going to take you through Steps 3 & 5.  Yes, I am going to miss out Step 4 and make it the subject of a separate post.

The Success Cycle

Step 3 – my plan for achieving my New Year resolutions

Being committed to a resolution, or goal, is not enough.  We have to do something.  Normally we have to change something too – perhaps our habits, circumstances, lifestyle.

The best way to make sure we do these things and make these changes is to have a very simple plan.

All a plan does is tell us, in advance and related specifically to each goal, who will do what by when and with what.  Lets break that down.

Who will – well if we are talking of your New Year resolutions the who has to be you.

Do what – what are the actual tasks and activities that you will do to achieve your resolution or goal?

By when – what is your deadline?

With what – what resources, such as time or money, do you require?

It helps if the plan has a series of milestones.  These are like stepping stones between the start of the plan and its conclusion, when you will meet the goal.  But more of that in Step 5.

So, lets create an example, based up my resolution to be fit and healthy in 2018.  In fact I broke this down into four goals that effectively give me my measures of success.  They were:

I can go about my daily activities without difficulty or health problems
I can walk at least 15,000 steps each day
I am free of pain in knees and legs
Reduced sizes for shirts, trousers and jackets (I have defined these for my own benefit).

My overall approach for achieving these results is to “eat less and exercise more”.  I am fully aware of my lifestyle and how my current habits are probably exactly the opposite.  I will deal with how to change habits in Step 4.

For now, what specifically will I build into my plan?  OK, here we go.

During January

start wearing an activity tracker and establish a baseline for my daily activities
weigh myself daily
cut out sweets and desserts, except for fresh fruit
drink more water
go for a short morning walk twice a week
expect to see a weight reduction of at least 7 lb since January
resources required – I already possess the equipment but need to change some habits.

During February

set incremental goals and targets for my activities and measure progress using my activity tracker
reduce carbs (potatoes, etc) and increase proteins 
go for a morning walk every two days
expect to see a weight reduction of at least 10 lb since January 

During March

increase my activity goals and targets to see 10% improvement since January
reduce meal portions 
increase walking distance
expect to see a weight reduction of at least 14 lb since January.

During April

review eating and exercise habits and set goals and plan actions to achieve 20% improvement over 1/1/2018 by 30/6/2018
update plan for next three months to end of June.

The plan is not so detailed as to become cumbersome.  And by replanning at intervals I can make sure the plan is always relevant to my progress.  But it is broken into milestones.  That brings us to Step 5, skipping over Step 4, at least for today.

Step 5 – monitoring my progress towards achieving my New Year resolutions

One of the ways in which the Success Cycle delivers success is that it has built in to it the means to keep us on track.  The first of these is Step 5, monitoring progress.  We don’t wait until we have started to think of how we monitor, we will build it in to our plan from the start.

A monitor is a means we will use to track the progress of our plan towards our goal.  It answers the question, “have we done what we said we would do in our plan”?

A simple way of creating a monitor is to decide what data we are going to use to track progress, create a spreadsheet, take readings regularly and especially at the required milestones and record them in the spreadsheet.

If we can turn the spreadsheet into a simple graph, so much the better.  Imagine a straight line connecting two points; the first being our measure or baseline at the start of our plan (for example my weight on 1st January) and the second being our target (for example, the weight I wish to be on 31st December). As we take our measures if they are above the line we are not making the progress we want and if they are below the line then we are doing well.

As we take our readings and track or monitor our progress we can adapt or fine tune our plan – and of course our actions – to make sure we keep on track to achieve our goal.

The trick is to take take readings often enough to be able to manage and control what we are doing but not so often that we don’t see any change.  For my plan I will be using the following monitors:

my weight, measured daily
my resting heart rate, measured daily using my tracker
my steps walked, measured daily using my tracker
my levels of pain in my knees and legs, considered weekly (probably more often in fact) but recorded monthly
my shirt, trouser and jacket sizes, measured monthly
difficulties with daily activities or health problems, recorded in a written diary.

So, I have a clear vision, more detailed goals, a plan to achieve those goals and a means of monitoring my progress.

Tomorrow I will address the question, “how do I change my habits and actions to achieve my goals and make my plan a reality”?

Let me know if you want further support with achieving your goals.

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How to stick to New Year resolutions – Steps 1 & 2

Here we are at that point in the year when we not only look back over the last twelve months – its high and low points, successes and difficulties, pleasures and frustrations – but we also look forward to a bright New Year, full of optimism and opportunity, and to achieving goals we set for ourself.

If you are anything like me you will want to make some New Year resolutions.

Why do we do this? To start as we mean to go on, to give some impetus for our good intentions, to help us to make a good start for achieving goals and to seize the fresh chances that the New Year brings.

Equally, if you are anything like me, you will find it difficult to stick to those resolutions and before long you may not even remember what they are.  Sticking to resolutions and achieving goals means making changes to our actions, our habits and perhaps even our surroundings and lifestyle.

So, what can we do to stick to our New Year resolutions and how do we make sure we achieve what we set out to do?

The Success Cycle is a great tool to help us to become what we want to become, to achieve what we want to achieve.

The Success Cycle

Over the next few days I will take you through the Success Cycle and show you how you can use it to stick to your New Year resolutions and make 2018 the year you really want it to be.

Step 1 – my vision for my 2018

The first step is not to work on the resolutions themselves.  It is to create a vision for 2018.  A vision is a crystal clear view of what we want our world to be like at a given future point in time.  It should be a very positive, ideal and aspirational statement, a dream if you like.  It can also be the result of overcoming a challenge.  If we are using the Success Cycle to help us to manage our New Year resolutions than our vision can be set for 31st December 2018.

Now, imagine you were to get into a time machine and step out of that machine on 31st December 2018.  In your imagination, look around at your world at that point in time and describe how you would like that world to be, to look, sound, feel.  Write it down.

I have done this myself and my vision for 2018, to be achieved by 31st December next year, is …

“To be happy & fulfilled, fit & healthy, with my time balanced between family, pastimes and work.”

The vision is not a resolution or goal.  It does not have to be measurable or timed.  It does have to be attractive, desirable, aspirational.  It has to motivate us to make any necessary changes to our habits and lifestyle.

To give you some context, and to explain why these are a challenge and an aspirational move forward for me …

(1) my relationship with my wife and daughter is excellent but family relationships are my most important and they need continued nurturing.  We expect some changes in circumstances over the coming year and so it is important to me that I invest in my family relationships and make sure that the changes result in fulfilment.

(2) I am not fit or healthy.  I am considerably overweight and my fitness is at an all time low.  I have difficulty with my legs and this hampers my ability to walk any distance.  Rather than think of negatives (you know, losing weight, giving up certain foods), my vision is focused on positive benefits of being fit and healthy.

(3) Finally, I am passionate about my work and pastimes and tend to put a lot of time into them, sometimes more than perhaps I should.  I have to constantly manage my time to make sure I balance between work, rest and play.

Step 2 – my goals or New Year resolutions for my 2018

The next step is to break the vision down into its component parts and to set goals for each of these parts.  These goals are effectively our New Year resolutions.

A lot of people think of goals as something to do.  They are not.  They are something to achieve.  They are not about the activities, which come later, they are about outcomes, results, changed situations.

A lot has been written about goals (see my blog post Why SMART goals fail and steps to setting great ones) but for the sake of New Year resolutions we can keep them quite simple.  The deadline is clear (31/12/2018) and we can sort out how to monitor progress in later steps in this process.

So, in my very personal example, I am very clear in my own mind how my vision breaks down into meaningful resolutions, goals or outcomes.  They are …

To be happy & fulfilled

A good relationship with my wife and daughter
Regular open communication within my family
A sense that my time & talents are used well and for a purpose
A sense that I am loved, recognised and appreciated by my family and others.

To be fit & healthy

I can go about my daily activities without difficulty or health problems
I can walk at least 15,000 steps each day
I am free of pain in knees and legs
Reduced sizes for shirts, trousers and jackets (I have defined these for my own benefit).

With my time balanced between family, pastimes and work

Devoting at least one day per week to family activities
Managing my work and pastimes so that they do not disrupt my family time
Managing my work and pastimes so that I spend my time on satisfying activities that make good use of my talents.

 These resolutions also have built into them some elements that I can use to measure my success.  But more of this another day.

In my next blog post I will take us through Step 3, how to plan to achieve my vision and resolutions (or goals).

Let me know if you want further support with achieving your goals.

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Why SMART goals fail and steps to setting great ones

For some years now managers have been using the system of SMART goals and objectives to help them set targets for themselves and others.

SMART has classically stood for :

S         – Specific

M         – Measurable

A         – Achievable

R          – Realistic

T          – Timely

However, some people have found that SMART doesn’t go far enough. It often leads to mediocre goals. Achievable and Realistic can become confused and can lower our sights. Timely doesn’t always emphasise that we have a deadline to reach. And Measurable does not always mean that measures are established in advance.

My new approach to SMART is an attempt to put right these failings.  In this the letters now stand for:

S         – Stretching (goals should be challenging, and take us beyond where we are now)

M         – Monitored (means must be put in place to monitor progress towards the goal)

A         – Aspirational (goals should be motivational, worth the effort)

R          – Relevant (and relevant to the bigger picture, the vision, policy or strategy)

T          – Time limited (the deadline should be stated in the goal itself).

Examples of NewSMART goals are :

  1. By the end of the current calendar year, I will have published an article in a professional journal explaining the Success Cycle. I will monitor progress towards the goal using an action plan that incorporates all the steps and timescales involved.
  2. By the end of October I will have lost two stone in weight. I will monitor progress by comparing my actual weight against a straight-line curve that shows my start weight at 1st January and my planned weight at 31st

The next time you are setting goals, try using this new approach to SMART.

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