Why do we wait until New Year’s to make resolutions?
There’s a neuroscientist who recently reported that only 33% of us even make New Years’ Resolutions to begin with and only 8% of those resolutions last more than a week.
Huh, a 92% failure rate?
This got me to thinking about what it takes to make and keep a commitment.
Getting Started
Mark Twain said, “The secret to getting ahead is getting started”. Great advice, but first you have to figure out how to start. I think that there’s a reluctance to starting new things, even when you know that they are good for you or your business. Make a commitment and start. The rest will follow.
This week I read 805connect partner Foleypod’s post about making a commitment to start blogging regularly. The post is terrific and it brings to mind that you actually have to burn some calories if you want to make things happen.
His message is simple. Do the work.
There’s a great sense of energy at the beginning of the school year and everyone’s feeling rested and relaxed. Might this be a good time to do the work and make mid-year resolutions?
This brings up the concept of a challenge. Have you ever been a part of one? These are commonly used in fitness to get everyone to start exercising as a group. What about applying that same thinking to your business goals?
What if a group of you decide to do something in your business and challenge each other to a common goal to keep each other accountable? It’s a way of stacking the deck in your favor and overcoming that 92% failure rate. Quick fixes and magic formulas won’t work. Hello 92%.
A challenge is more serious and introduces accountability, which turns out to be the missing piece when you’re trying to make a positive change in your life. Having others in a group that help you and hold you accountable is extremely powerful and pushes you towards the successful 8%. You could call them your accountabilibuddies.
Staying on Track
The neuroscientist suggests that you should take small steps towards goals and do things at the same time of day to establish a pattern. Humans love patterns and routines.
So here’s a suggestion for you. Think about the one thing that you’d like to set a goal to accomplish, have it be something that you can do regularly, so it’ll become a habit and something that materially improves your business. Talk about this with your inner circle of friends and see if you can enlist them to become accountabilibuddies with you. Pick something you can all work on individually, yet together. Like writing a blog a week as @foleypod suggests.
If you’re looking for someone to work with, take a look at your top five matches inside 805connect and see who you have the most in common with. Reach out to them and tell them you’d like to work with them on this Mid Year Challenge.
Tell us how it’s going
Write us in the comments section below and describe your progress. We’ll celebrate your success and maybe feature you in a story we’ll do at the end of the year.
ps. thanks to Tony Robbins for the title of this blog. He said it at one of his events and it’s never left my mind. I use it all the time when I want to make a point about getting started. Funny thing is that people think they heard it wrong, then I repeat it and they laugh. Yes. When would NOW be a good time to start? Indeed.
