New Year’s resolution – and why you should ditch it

New Year’s resolution of 2020; we go through it at the end of every year and lose hope within the first month.

This year will be different! Be ready to make the change and let’s have a look at why your new year’s resolution would have most likely failed and what is the better choice to make this year.

The format

A new year’s resolution fails mainly due to the way you set it up.

Just like the one you decided on this year, a typical new year’s resolution often takes the following format:

– giving up smoking;
– to travel more;
– get on a diet;
– to save money, etc.

As you can see, they are all emotionally based and a micro part of your life. And that is where the problem really lies; so let’s dive in.

The new year’s resolution shortcomings

The typical example of an emotionally driven resolution starts with something like: “I feel like… losing weight; getting fit” and so on. As strong as you may feel about it now, during this special time of the year, in a month’s time that same feeling will slowly fade under the mundane routine of life.

Another shortcoming is the fact that a new year’s resolution only represents a micro part of your life. As such, the impact of that resolution does not provide enough weight on the large scale of your life for you to see it through.

But do not lose hope! A better option is actually here that will not only cover that pesky on going new year’s resolution but also help with many other ones.

New year’s resolution the right way

The simplest and most impactful way to make a positive change to your life this year is to change your new year’s resolution into a new year’s FOCUS.

Having a focus is a simple yet effective way to transform your life on multiple levels. Just as with how meditation works, having a focus is the best way to de-clutter your mind. This allows you to prioritize, which leaves less space to time-wasting and drives actions towards completing what you are focusing on.

Choosing the right focus

In order to focus on the right thing this new year, you have to follow the SMART rule.

SMART is an acronym that is used to set effective business goals. It stands for Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Based.

Specific

It is important for your focus to be simple yet significant. Something that you are looking forward to and that you can pinpoint specifically. For example, you can ask yourself what it is that you want to achieve and whether it is something important to you.

Measurable

A focus being measurable is essential for you to keep your motivation. By measuring your progress, you can see the results from your hard work which leads to you feeling empowered and to keep moving forward.

Attainable

We are not talking about fairytales here. Your focus needs to be within reach given the effort, time and resources you can put into it. This is the bit where you need to be realistic but remain optimistic.

Relevant

For a focus to be relevant, it must really matter to you and at the same be relevant to your current situation.
It would be worthless to focus on fully renovating your house this year when you are crumbling under massive debts.

Time-based

Setting yourself a target date is the first step to making sure you can properly plan and prioritize where needed. A time-based focus is set with milestones and a short, medium and long term goal. This is also an important factor in keeping yourself motivated and focused.

My new year’s focus

This year, I have decided to grow my online presence into a properly structured platform that includes Youtube, Instagram and the blog you are currently reading.

In order to achieve that goal, I have to make many micro-adjustments that would have been resolutions. For example, I will need to travel more in order to create more content. This in on its’ own means that I will have to save more and reduce my spending; which also leads to having a proper healthy diet.

Looking for help on choosing what it worth investing your time into? Check out my post about desires.