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Abstract

ith easy to realize goals and from there build up on your early little successes. None of the goals you are trying to achieve will ever come as a single chunk. Break your goals into tasks, sub-tasks, and the milestones that you expect to meet on the way. Proceed on each task and step,one at a time. Following through persistently will increase the likelihood of realizing your resolutions.</p><h2 id="c781">4. Create an enabling environment for your goals to thrive</h2><p id="f4b8">Some environments may reinforce your old inertia. You must break out of them. A change of environment may entail going to the library to do more of your reading and writing resolutions. Many software tools like Trello, Microsoft To Do, Zoho Notebooks and many others - both free and paid will also prove to be invaluable. While ensuring you don't get drowned in a sea of apps, get some of these tools to keep you afloat and on track.</p><h2 id="5f9c">5. Cultivate the discipline of Execution</h2><p id="6c60">As effective as these steps are, many people still drop out of the race to becoming their better selves. Why? The glue that binds all resolutions and makes them realizable is execution. Often, execution is the missing vital element. For any of your resolutions to succeed, you must cultivate the discipline of following through - execution.</p><p id="82f0">In their book, Execution, authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan described execution as a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies must master in order to have a competitive advantage. Applied to "You Incorporated", execution is the discipline of consistently following through. From today, start taking actions that will help make your new year resolutions come true. Without the discipline of execution, all your new year resolutions are new year mirages.</p><h2 id="f492">6. Avoid being distracted by small ends</h2><p id="5453">Author Lewis Timberlake recited a story about some whales that met their untimely death. The whales were hot in pursuit of of a school of tiny fishes - sardines. At the end of their self-immolating chases, the whales found themselves marooned in a small bay — a bay that proved to be a death trap for the large mammals. Frederick Brown Harris commented, “The small ﬁsh lured the sea giants to their deaths… They came to their violent demise by chasing small ends, by prostituting vast powers for insignificant goals."</p><p id="c666">In today's world there are many distracting, benumbing and deadly allurements. Only you can recognize and dispense with the unending sea of self-limiting distractions. All it takes is for you to be honest with yourself. Some things must go while we must coach some to stay and stick if you are ever to become an upgraded new version of you.</p><p id="0248" type="7">An unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Socrates.</p><h2 id="f971">7. Pre-commitment</h2><p id="6046">Pre-commitment is one tool used by savvy marketers to make sure that their potential clients do not withdraw from following through on a prospective purchase. Collins Dictionary defines <a href="https://is.gd/Qdwidd">pre-commitment</a> as a decision or set of decisions taken in the present in order to limit the agent’s options in the future, that is to commit the agent to a particular course of action or limited set of courses.</p><p id="3fb0">Pre-commitment is when I arrange my sportswears the night before the morning I set out for my morning walk. Preparing for Sunday worship service the night before helps to reduce the likelihood of my getting to church late on Sunday. Humans are wired to default to natural states of ease. Often, we are kept on our toes because we know that on the long, where there is no pain, there is likely to be no gain.</p><h2 id="b6b9">8. Don't lose track of where you're going</h2><p id="ab9e">We often forget that good intentions are not enough. This accounts for why many new year resolutions don't get off the ground. There is the need for you to do mid-course correction all throughout the year. Pilots must apply midcourse corrections all the time if they and their passengers are to land safely with their planes at their set flight destinations.</p><p id="4968">Midcourse correction is needed if you are not to lose sight of of your goal. Keep making the adaptations, modifications or changes needed to reach your goals. Your new year’s resolutions will m

Options

eet with unexpected turbulences. Stop giving up too soon. If you fail, try again, applying midcourse correction.</p><p id="82c8" type="7">One of of the greatest tragedies in life is forgetting what you are trying to achieve.</p><h2 id="9258">9. Document and review your goals</h2><p id="3073">Don't just coast along, write your master goals - new year resolutions. Use online or mobile tools. Keep the hard-copy where you can see and review it regularly. Unwritten goals quickly become vague and get lost in the sea of forgetfulness. Writing your goals helps you to prioritize them. Also, this will enable you to isolate and focus on them instead of dissipating your limited energy and resources on less important concerns. Seeing and reviewing your every little progress will fuel and energize your resolve.</p><h2 id="792f">10. Water your dreams or watch them whither</h2><p id="c0ba">If you don't water your dreams, they will whither and then die along with their fruits of unrealized potentials. Believe that it is possible to change. Finally, always be in a “can-do-it”, “growth oriented mindset. For some of us, this could mean associating with and reviewing our goals with like-minded people. This also means that you delete from your cycle of influence those who will make you derail.</p><h2 id="6247">Key Takeaways</h2><p id="49cf">Most people often fail at realizing their new year’s resolutions. This is because we humans are creatures of habits. Your old ingrained habits will always trump all your new year (or anytime) resolutions.</p><p id="475f">These handy tips will help you ace all your resolutions.</p><ul><li>Your habits will always trump your resolutions. Work on your habits, always.</li><li>Motivate yourself with early small wins.</li><li>Stop biting off more than you can chew.</li><li>Create an enabling environment</li><li>Follow your resolutions through to success with the discipline of execution.</li><li>Don’t get drowned in the shallows of small ends.</li><li>Pre-commit. Always do upfront some little things that steer you towards realizing your resolutions</li><li>Apply midcourse corrections.</li><li>Document and review your goals.</li><li>Water your dreams or watch them whither.</li></ul><p id="a236"><b>SOURCE</b></p><p id="3b8f">©Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan; <i>The Discipline of Getting Things Done</i>, Crown Publishers, 2002</p><p id="e602">Thank you for reading. <a href="https://is.gd/QK6hFw ">Click here </a>to subscribe and receive updates and my other life enriching stories and essays.</p><div id="dd3d" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/life-lessons-from-a-40-years-adventure-167413f5f88d"> <div> <div> <h2>Life Lessons From A 40 Years Adventure</h2> <div><h3>Here’s my jungle-story, and the lessons learnt after completing the challenge</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*dQB2ngaQsyhHfdhlQdmlEg.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="f3f7" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/land-of-endless-shadows-and-mass-rage-634249eaf71c"> <div> <div> <h2>Land of Endless Shadows and Mass Rage</h2> <div><h3>Before the virus of incivility undo us all</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*2uJ0mYoBlUYxiict0Acr6w.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div><div id="5994" class="link-block"> <a href="https://readmedium.com/5-steps-to-regaining-self-discipline-5e763d314f9"> <div> <div> <h2>5 Steps to Regaining Self Discipline</h2> <div><h3>Conquer procrastination and recover your willpower</h3></div> <div><p>medium.com</p></div> </div> <div> <div style="background-image: url(https://miro.readmedium.com/v2/resize:fit:320/1*2u-RayMiTk42V3lALm_p-Q.jpeg)"></div> </div> </div> </a> </div></article></body>

Your Habits Will Always Trump Your Resolutions

10 tips for turning your new year’s resolutions into sticky habits

A New Year’s resolution is a tradition, in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behavior, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their life at the start of a new year. The new year, 2021 is already one month gone. If you are like most people, you started the year with some written or mental resolutions on what you are going to do or undo this year.

Your new year’s resolutions might have included anyone or more of the following. Read at least twenty-four more books. Write twice as many Medium stories as you did last year. Part of your resolutions may also include eliminating time wasting social media habits among others. With these, you stepped into the year with a new resolve to do or perform better than you did last year. Welcome.

Statistics have shown that up to 92% of new year resolutions are dead on arrival. Most resolutions last for no longer than the second week of the second month of the year - February. Why then do our lofty ideals and all those new year’s resolutions often play out dead on arrival? As humans, we are all creatures of habits. Our ingrained habits account for why most of us fail at keeping to our resolutions. Instead of drawing up a long list of resolutions, tip the odds in your favor by working on your old habits. Because, after all has been said and done, much more would have been said than done.

After all has been said and done, much more would have been said than done.

There you have it. In the race between your new year (or anytime) resolutions, your daily and old habits will always win. Good intentions are never enough. At all times, you keep on improving and reinforcing your habits. Because your habits will always trump your new year (or anytime) resolutions. Here are some steps you can take to tip the odds in your favor:

1. Old habits die hard

The key point is your habits. Your habits are reflections of your character. And like smoke, your character will always express itself in the open no matter how much you try to capture, store or conceal it. You must proceed in this new year with the resolve to work on your self-limiting habits. Otherwise, your new year resolutions are dead on arrival. Don’t float through the remaining eleven months only to end up wondering what happened come another December not too far away. Work on your habits first.

2. A little small initial goal is all it takes

Start with small motivating goals. The little initial successes will catalyze you towards more meaningful goals. (For me, a goal for 2020 was ascending to the peak of a rock. I accomplished this in the last week of last December.) Many people start the year with resolutions aimed at becoming better versions of their old selves.

You may be familiar with the SMART framework for reaching set goals. Each letter of the acronym stands for,

Specific
Measurable
Attainable - Goals must be realistic.
Relevant
Time Related.

Just as it applies for goals-setting, SMART is a helpful tool that can help you achieve your new year resolutions.

3. Stop biting more than you can chew at a time

Your life's tracks might have been bedevilled by previously unreached resolutions. Mediocre progress might have been dodging your footsteps. A new year affords everybody the chance to do better. Do not set too many resolutions. Start with easy to realize goals and from there build up on your early little successes. None of the goals you are trying to achieve will ever come as a single chunk. Break your goals into tasks, sub-tasks, and the milestones that you expect to meet on the way. Proceed on each task and step,one at a time. Following through persistently will increase the likelihood of realizing your resolutions.

4. Create an enabling environment for your goals to thrive

Some environments may reinforce your old inertia. You must break out of them. A change of environment may entail going to the library to do more of your reading and writing resolutions. Many software tools like Trello, Microsoft To Do, Zoho Notebooks and many others - both free and paid will also prove to be invaluable. While ensuring you don't get drowned in a sea of apps, get some of these tools to keep you afloat and on track.

5. Cultivate the discipline of Execution

As effective as these steps are, many people still drop out of the race to becoming their better selves. Why? The glue that binds all resolutions and makes them realizable is execution. Often, execution is the missing vital element. For any of your resolutions to succeed, you must cultivate the discipline of following through - execution.

In their book, Execution, authors Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan described execution as a specific set of behaviors and techniques that companies must master in order to have a competitive advantage. Applied to "You Incorporated", execution is the discipline of consistently following through. From today, start taking actions that will help make your new year resolutions come true. Without the discipline of execution, all your new year resolutions are new year mirages.

6. Avoid being distracted by small ends

Author Lewis Timberlake recited a story about some whales that met their untimely death. The whales were hot in pursuit of of a school of tiny fishes - sardines. At the end of their self-immolating chases, the whales found themselves marooned in a small bay — a bay that proved to be a death trap for the large mammals. Frederick Brown Harris commented, “The small ﬁsh lured the sea giants to their deaths… They came to their violent demise by chasing small ends, by prostituting vast powers for insignificant goals."

In today's world there are many distracting, benumbing and deadly allurements. Only you can recognize and dispense with the unending sea of self-limiting distractions. All it takes is for you to be honest with yourself. Some things must go while we must coach some to stay and stick if you are ever to become an upgraded new version of you.

An unexamined life is not worth living. ~ Socrates.

7. Pre-commitment

Pre-commitment is one tool used by savvy marketers to make sure that their potential clients do not withdraw from following through on a prospective purchase. Collins Dictionary defines pre-commitment as a decision or set of decisions taken in the present in order to limit the agent’s options in the future, that is to commit the agent to a particular course of action or limited set of courses.

Pre-commitment is when I arrange my sportswears the night before the morning I set out for my morning walk. Preparing for Sunday worship service the night before helps to reduce the likelihood of my getting to church late on Sunday. Humans are wired to default to natural states of ease. Often, we are kept on our toes because we know that on the long, where there is no pain, there is likely to be no gain.

8. Don't lose track of where you're going

We often forget that good intentions are not enough. This accounts for why many new year resolutions don't get off the ground. There is the need for you to do mid-course correction all throughout the year. Pilots must apply midcourse corrections all the time if they and their passengers are to land safely with their planes at their set flight destinations.

Midcourse correction is needed if you are not to lose sight of of your goal. Keep making the adaptations, modifications or changes needed to reach your goals. Your new year’s resolutions will meet with unexpected turbulences. Stop giving up too soon. If you fail, try again, applying midcourse correction.

One of of the greatest tragedies in life is forgetting what you are trying to achieve.

9. Document and review your goals

Don't just coast along, write your master goals - new year resolutions. Use online or mobile tools. Keep the hard-copy where you can see and review it regularly. Unwritten goals quickly become vague and get lost in the sea of forgetfulness. Writing your goals helps you to prioritize them. Also, this will enable you to isolate and focus on them instead of dissipating your limited energy and resources on less important concerns. Seeing and reviewing your every little progress will fuel and energize your resolve.

10. Water your dreams or watch them whither

If you don't water your dreams, they will whither and then die along with their fruits of unrealized potentials. Believe that it is possible to change. Finally, always be in a “can-do-it”, “growth oriented mindset. For some of us, this could mean associating with and reviewing our goals with like-minded people. This also means that you delete from your cycle of influence those who will make you derail.

Key Takeaways

Most people often fail at realizing their new year’s resolutions. This is because we humans are creatures of habits. Your old ingrained habits will always trump all your new year (or anytime) resolutions.

These handy tips will help you ace all your resolutions.

Your habits will always trump your resolutions. Work on your habits, always.
Motivate yourself with early small wins.
Stop biting off more than you can chew.
Create an enabling environment
Follow your resolutions through to success with the discipline of execution.
Don’t get drowned in the shallows of small ends.
Pre-commit. Always do upfront some little things that steer you towards realizing your resolutions
Apply midcourse corrections.
Document and review your goals.
Water your dreams or watch them whither.

SOURCE

Thank you for reading. Click here to subscribe and receive updates and my other life enriching stories and essays.