How to Avoid Making the 7 Worst Mistakes Most People Make When Setting New Year Resolutions.  

Not long to go now. Christmas is almost here, and that can only mean one thing – New Year’s just around the corner. Whilst I agree with you that this is the season to be merry, if you could put your minced pie down for a moment what you read here might just help you avoid some of the pitfalls to achieving your goals in 2010. By taking time now between the Christmas turkey and New Year’s Hogmanay celebrations to review the 7 mistakes I’ve seen people repeat time and time again over the years, you might just have a better chance at achieving your goals in 2010.

Mistake No. 1:            Resolutions are for the pub, 11:55pm New Year’s Eve; perfect!

No, they’re not! If you’re reading this thinking to yourself, ‘I’m too busy now, and I’ll have eaten too much over Christmas – let me leave thinking about resolutions until just before midnight on New Year’s Eve, just as I always do,’ you’ll be like the other 70% of people that have given up on their goals by the 3^rd week of January, or the majority that have let their dreams fall by the wayside by June. Statistically, less than 5% of people arrive at the other end of the year with their goals intact and achieved. Remember, if you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always got. Goal setting, from this point on, is about doing something different.

Mistake No. 2:            Why do today what I can put off until tomorrow?

In 7 years as a coach, I’ve worked with more than 12,500 people either one-to-one or in workshops, and I can tell you that the very BEST time to set your targets for New Year isn’t at New Year! Let me ask you a topical question, if New Year were a pantomime and you asked where your New Year goals should be, what would the audience shout back to help you? ‘Behind you, behind you’!! And they’d be right, the best time to set your resolutions isn’t at New Year, it’s before New Year, so that when the party begins you can enjoy it, knowing the ground work has been done. And again statistically, if you follow this method you are much more likely to follow through with your goals.

Mistake No. 3:            I’ll re-read that old Anthony Robbins book, that’ll be enough.

Whilst the thought is admirable, one thing most people leave out of the whole ‘reading a motivational book’ experience is, as Tony repeats over and over again, is that there is no alternative but to consistent and MASSIVE ACTION. Similarly, you may have seen ‘The Secret’ on DVD (and if you haven’t, it’s a great New Year gift to buy yourself), but again whilst the Universe may provide, what you need to also do is take massive action. Thinking is great. But action is the only thing that will bring results.

Mistake No. 4:            In front of the tele, or down the pub?

Ah, decisions, decisions! Whilst it’s true to say a lot of good business has been done over a drink in the bar or ‘down the pub’ as we say in England, and conversely a good idea may well spring to mind whilst watching television at home, the truth is that for goal setting at New Year or at any time, neither of these venues contributed positively to your goal setting and ultimate success. At best, what you get from goal setting at the pub is big ideas without the requisite underpinning beliefs and well thought out strategy needed to help you get there. And whilst we may well have ideas in front of the television, they’re usually connected to something we’ve just watched, so can very easily be based on someone else’s goal – remember, you have to own it, live it and breath it in order to be able to run with it.

Mistake No. 5:            Not to worry if I give up, I’ll just dumb the goal down to look good.

Okay, let’s take this one a step at a time: firstly, 93% of the communication you have with other people is not in the words that you use. Whilst you may well make up an excuse to justify to your friends why you gave up on a New Year resolution (goal), and they might sympathise, the reality is they would know you stuffed up! 38% of communication is the tonality – you’ve probably heard the phrase, ‘it’s not what you say, it’s the way that you say it’, and 55% is body language. And this combination means it’s almost impossible to lie. Your friends will know, and even more importantly YOU will know. That brings me to the second point; short of amnesia, you will always know you fell short and lied to save face. Not a good strategy. Sounds like a big ‘ouch’ to me. Not the best way to begin a bright New Year.

Mistake No. 6:            Too late To Take Action Now, I’ll Leave It Until Spring

I’m lucky enough to work with some people in showbiz, and in the theatre they have a phrase, ‘this life, it’s not a dress rehearsal – it’s the real thing’. And that’s the real deal. New Year brings with it the biggest boost of energy of any time throughout the year. You can capitalize on, utilize it, or simply let it flow past and gently ebb away. It’s your decision. If part of your plan is to book a course of some kind, it may well be repeated in the spring term. But you’ll find most of the people that book the spring semester have also just completed the winter one. You’ll be the odd one out that didn’t. Use the energy, it’s the greatest gift you have – and totally your responsibility.

Mistake No. 7:            What’s The Big Deal, I’m Successful Enough Anyway

Stephen Covey, author of the multi-million selling ‘7 Habits of Highly Effective People’ suggests all our knowledge has a half shelf life of 2 years. What this means is that up to half of all the knowledge you have right know will be out of date and redundant within the next 2 years, because the world is moving on, other people are up-skilling and achieving success in their own lives. So, if you don’t constantly push yourself to do the same, to up-skill, to live better, more productively – and that begins with your goal setting, then you will simply fall behind. Brian Tracy, of ‘Eat That Frog’ fame writes that in modern life there are only two gears; forwards and reverse. There is no neutral, because neutral would suggest everyone else has also decided to take a break, sit of the fence, give up for a while – and they have/don’t/and never will.

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