Tuesday, December 27, 2011

How To Test Drive Your New Year's Resolution


There are many of us who would be more than happy to skip New Year's Resolutions and who would prefer to simply countdown to the ball dropping and enter 2012 accepting things the way they were the year before.

Then there's others who look forward to a new challenge, or a renewed sense of accomplishment, so they set their sites on an item, or weakness, which they plan on tackling in the New Year.

Choosing a New Year's Resolution isn't easy. No one is perfect, and so at any given time we could likely find a dozen things which could use a bit of tweaking.

So, how do you know which one do you choose? 
And...
Which one is more important than the others?
And...
How can you guarantee success with the one you pick?

Well, the first two questions are very personal, and the one making the resolution would be the only person able to answer them.

But the third one depends on the why and if you've tested it or not.

How do you test your chosen New Year's Resolution?

Give it a trial run today!

If your resolution might be to follow a better fitness regimen, add it 'mini-size' to your day for a couple of days.

If you are completely disinterested and unmotivated trying to follow it, than you might want to choose something else. (It's possible that you aren't ready or your 'why', right now, is not great enough.)

We all want to succeed. 


'Try, try again,' is the often muttered motto when we fail, and it can leave us completely discouraged.

I believe that to feel motivated to accomplish something, and be excited to move on to another challenge, it is imperative that we are successful, even if it's only in the littlest increments.

That is a reason to test-drive a resolution. 


If you are not ready, it will be nearly impossible to stick with it.
So, include it today in small doses....then tomorrow try it again....if it is going well and you are excited about it and it is benefiting you, than keep it as your New Years Resolution on January 1st!

If not... go back to the drawing board.

Another reason you should test-drive a resolution: 


To find out if the one you chose will make a large enough impact.

Suppose you make a goal to wake up a half hour earlier every day. The reason you want to do this is so that you get things done around the house... though when hear your alarm, you wake up, but spend the next hour lying there, or you find yourself surfing the net or updating your Facebook status with coffee in hand.  While I enjoy doing all of these things, if my goal is to get up to 'get things done' I have defeated the resolution of getting up earlier.

It may be, that this is not a strong enough resolution.

Last year, I chose to incorporate the One Word approach to my New Year's Resolutions.

This week, I picked a few words to try....
  • Faith
  • Let it Go (I know that's three but I like it and could could consider it- My One Phrase.)
  • Goals
I will let you know how it goes...

What New Year's Resolutions will you choose to test-drive?