How Not to Fail at Your New Years Goals

David — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 05:19:40 +0000

The night came and went with promises made to one another and to ourselves. The fireworks flew overhead and the confetti was strewn about. Then, we came back to reality.

New Years came and went. What are you doing to make your big promises a reality now that we are in the new year?

What Reality are You Creating

Coming back to reality the morning of January 1st may be with a hangover and confusion. I don’t need to explain the reason for the first, but I do want to touch on the second.

We set these huge goals for ourselves and, many times, we “knew” we would fail at them before the exclamation point ended our resolution promise. We can and we will succeed. I am here to help you do just that.

Through this post, I will make your success rate in accomplishing your goals skyrocket.

Let’s get at it already…

Why People Fail

People fail because they don’t simplify nor act.

Simplifying every task, goal, desire, want, and need drastically increases your odds at succeeding.

For example, let’s say Johnny wants to supplement his income by $100. Now, how can he make $100. By now, Johnny and a lot of people have failed. Yes, that quickly. Why? The big goal wasn’t broken down before acting upon that goal. Planning is key to success.

Let’s say Johnny breaks that $100 down to $5 increments. Johnny needs to make an extra $5 20 times to equal his $100 goal. Johnny realizes he can mow 10 yards in his neighborhood for $5 each. He also knows that he can make $5 per DVD he sells from his collection and easily sell 10 of them. Just like that, Johnny now has made his goal more manageable.

Obviously, if Johnny could make $100 in one shot, the task would be easier to accomplish. The problem is $100 is just an example and our goals tend to be much larger.

Instead of $100, let’s say your goal is to save $10,000 for an around the world excursion. Sure, you could do one specific thing (i.e. sell a car, do a big freelance gig), but most people will stop before they even get started. Break that $10,000 goal down to $100 increments and it’s simplicity is extremely difficult to ignore and a whole lot easier to succeed at.

The second part is not acting. Now that we realize we have simplified our goal in smaller action steps, we must do one thing. Yes, just one thing. We need to schedule each task.

I don’t care who you are, if you set your necessary actions in a manageable way that has specific dates/times that you are to accomplish them, you will succeed 95% of the time.

All notifications tools and calendars sync with every technological item we use today. If you have a smart phone, set up measurable action steps that take between 10-30 minutes to accomplish.

DING DING DING! Did you catch the key word in that last sentence. Measurable. Let me say it one more time. Measurable. Pick apples. Pick 5 apples. Run. Run 1 mile. Write. Write 3 posts. See the difference yet.

Make your scheduled actions measurable. If they aren’t measurable, stop doing any and all of this. It won’t help. You will end up just wandering about getting little done.

If you can be unlike everyone else and start simplifying and acting, you will end up in a completely different place than everyone else…the land of goal success.

Why People Succeed at Their New Years Goals

I know this might come as a shocker, but there are people who absolutely kill it with their New Years goals. Why are they so different (and so successful) compared to the rest of us?

The first two things that people who succeed at their goals do are those mentioned earlier. That’s simplify and act if you fell asleep there for a bit. The next thing that successful people do is fail.

Successful people fail a lot. I mean a ton. What they do differently than the rest of us is get back on the tracks and keep that train headed in the right direction.

People who make the “lose shitloads of weight” resolution and end up fatter come 365 days later fail because they fall off the train tracks at some point and stay derailed at the nearest fast food joint.

Get back on that track. It’s okay if you “accidentally” let that cupcake fall in your mouth. Just get back on track immediately.

Free Guides to Prevent Failure

I know all you really wanted was a free lunch, so here ya go.

I have created a few spreadsheets that I am using to guide me in the right direction in the new year. I want you to use them accordingly. If you implement properly, you will definitely see success.

The first should be used to tackle the weekly action steps you want to plan out. The second should be used for your overall annual plan. You probably should do the second first, but whatever. You get the idea.

(HERE’S THE FREE STUFF IF YOU HAPPENED TO FALL ASLEEP)

Daily Domination (Insert MM/DD/YY-MM/DD/YY) (Click Here)
Annual Personal Goals Strategy (Click Here) (I stole this idea from this article by Kaihan Krippendorff. Thanks to mention by @CalebWojcik)

Also, check out Benny Hsu’s year end guide as well. I used it and it helped a lot. Click here. (FYI: It is FREE too)

Special Offer: Destination X New Years Discount