I am really excited about this week. Actually I used to always get excited about new years resolutions and the anticipation of a new me in the new year.
I used to set a complex set of resolutions every year and then would promptly let them slide after the second week of the year and quickly forget them so that I would not have to deal with the disappointment of failing to make the changes necessary.
The last couple of years I have avoided new years resolutions really so as not to disappoint myself.
So this year I have changed. This week I am going to show you how to change you life for the better and give you a better chance to keep yourself on track. This is what I will cover over 4 posts.
Building Great New Years Resolutions
1. Today, we will do this little intro and I will also write about looking back over this past year.
2. Tomorrow, I will write about your goals for next year
3. Day 3 will deal with how to identify and use your strengths and weaknesses. You need to know what you have to work with.
4. On this last day we will see how to make sure that you put action steps in place so that you will be able to successfully declare victory in your resolutions as well as looking at your values and the affect they have.
Today you need to look back. Try to get a couple of pieces of paper and see what the last year dealt you both good and bad and start letting the ideas of what you want to see in 2010 swirl around. You don’t want to commit to anything but we all know what we would like to see in our future and unless we start taking steps our dreams will never materialize.
This is what you need to do. On one sheet of paper draw a line down the middle and on the left side write down all the great things from last year, both things in your control and things our of your control. On the right side of the paper do the same with all the bad things and disappointments. Once you have this list all written out I hope you feel good about this last year but maybe not. This is a really in your face way to bring everything that has happened to the forefront and is a method that I use anytime that I am feeling a little out of control. You have no way to know what to do next if you do not know where you have been already.
So just do this one exercise. This is a tool that will make tomorrow a lot easier and tomorrow is the exciting day of looking at what you want to see happen next year.
Ready to move forward? Here are the rest of the posts:
Day 2 of creating great new years resolutions
Day 3 of creating great new years resolutions
Day 4 of creating great new years resolutions
Liked all your new year’s resolution posts, especially ‘part 2’ about setting up SMART goals. After successive failures in meeting up new years resolutions, this year I decided a different approach which I am sure would work.
I prepared over all goals for the next 5 years and based on that I created goals for this year and yes all of them are very specific!
What’s going on with your new years resolution plan?
More importantly, it greatly increases the likelihood that we follow through with our plan. A second problem is that declaring your New Year’s resolutions has become less about personal choice and more about societal expectation.
Hey – this sounds like a plan!
Beautiful. Corney as it sounds. The New Year is a great to really appreciate that today is the first day of the rest of your life . Happy New Year
I think its a great idea that you are providing this info over 5 posts! New year is a great time to analyze where you are in life and set new goals – I hope people follow through with you tips 🙂