The New Year’s Resolution Solution

There’s nothing like a new year to inspire us to marginally reinvent ourselves, but this short-lived motivation is rarely enough to push us through it.

“He who would learn to fly one day must first learn to stand and walk and run and climb and dance; one cannot fly into flying.” -Friedrich Nietzsche

Most New Year’s resolutions fail and most of these failures occur the same month the resolution started. This is often due to unrealistic goals (or too many), loss of interest and the difficulty of the task.

That’s because most resolutions require instant radical changes that’s easy to attempt but too demanding to keep up for most people.

Quitting smoking, losing weight and spending less money are common goals and seem straightforward enough but require significant thought process changes to almost rewiring your brain.

While far from impossible, the high failure rate for these resolutions make it seem far from possible.

“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” -Socrates

The problem is making big lifestyle and mentality changes so suddenly and to conform them into your life in such a short amount of time.

The solution to successfully achieving or maintaining almost any New Year’s resolution is rather simple:

Decide on just one resolution and be very specific on the directive. Don’t make it “lose weight and get fit”, make it “lose 8 pounds and gain a 6 pack”.

Make it a targetable and reachable point. So the path to the goal is clear and direct. Not broad and inexact, making the path foggy and harder to reach.

More importantly, it takes a certain methodology:

Take small steps. Break down the resolution into manageable steps and take them slowly. Most people quit because they take too big a step all at once.

Improve or move forward a little at a time, even if you feel you can leap. A lot of a little can become a lot and eventually, success.

The trick is small but continuous steps.

And finally, focus your thinking on new behaviors and thought patterns. As to create new neural pathways in your brain to accommodate and facilitate changes.

“All of us every single year, we’re a different person. I don’t think we’re the same person all our lives.” -Steven Spielberg

New Year’s resolutions have become more of a fad but if properly executed, it can be an excellent tool for reinventing ourselves in small but measurable facets.

It just takes a bit of behavioural mindset adjustments and lifestyle conditioning… mindful self-evolution.

[The featured photo was taken climbing a tomb at the Royal Tombs of Joseon Dynasty in Seoul, Korea.]