Last Updated on January 19, 2018 by Jeff
Did you know that January 14th is when people on average start to struggle with their New Year’s resolutions?
The first 2 weeks are full of commitment, desire, and trying to build new habits. It’s great to use willpower and be highly motivated when you’re trying to make changes in your life, but the thing is, it just doesn’t work for long.
You have a limited amount of willpower to use. Soon it will get depleted and you’ll slip back to old habits.
Meanwhile, at the beginning, you’re highly motivated and dedicated to making changes, but as time goes on you get busy, life gets in the way, and other things take priority.
Suddenly you’re struggling to keep up with everything, and you don’t know what to do. Your confidence dips and this is why most people barely make it to the end of January before giving up.
Only to set the same goals the following January.
We can do better than that, and in this post, I’m going to give you some strategies to get through the hard times, to adjust to new habits, and make permanent changes in your life.
Get clarity on your motivation
Having a clear sense of why you want to make these changes makes it much easier to maintain your motivation after the initial burst of commitment.
Setting goals is great, but that’s only the first stage.
You need a clear sense of why you want to achieve these goals.
What will it mean for your life? What is driving you? Why are you willing to sacrifice to achieve this?
If you don’t know, you’re going to get distracted by more pressing matters – because life is busy, and people are always vying for your attention.
Try grabbing a pen and notebook and writing out why you want to achieve the goals you have set.
Write 30 ways achieving that goal will make your life better.
Once you’ve done this exercise you should have a lot more clarity on why you’re doing this, and that will help keep it top of mind when life is starting to get hectic.
Write down your struggles
The reality is, you are going to struggle to make a change in your life.
Any change is difficult to make and sustain – that is why most people do not achieve all their goals and live perfect lives.
If you can identify what you are struggling with, and come up with a plan to overcome it, you will be far ahead of almost anybody else.
Most people face a struggle and see it as a reason to give up.
While some things are significant challenges, nothing in insurmountable. When you have that strong reason why driving you forwards, you can always find a way to get past struggles.
Start by writing down what your struggle is, and then brainstorm a plan to overcome it.
Sometimes it means beating it, sometimes it means navigating around it; each situation is different, but when you sit down and think about it, you can almost always find a way to win.
This mindset of seeing struggles as a challenge to overcome, rather than a reason to quit, is what separates the successful people from those who will be setting the same goals next January.
Ask for help
Not many people succeed on their own.
Most successful people have mentors, coaches, colleagues, and friends supporting them.
You don’t have to do this alone. You will benefit from being around people who can help you. Whether in a professional capacity, as peers, or even just supporters.
Find people who are committed to seeing you succeed and get their help. Whether it is technical help you receive from a professional, accountability from a peer, or just support from a friend.
Most people around you will be the same as they always have been. If you’re trying to make a significant change in your life, to do something new, you will likely need to meet new people to support you in that.
Of course, you don’t need to abandon all your old friends; just add in some new ones. If you’re making a commitment to working out, look for a gym buddy.
Your friends might not be interested, but there will be other people at the gym who would love to have someone to work out with.
Strike up a few conversations and you’ll soon meet people in the same boat as you.
If you need professional help, then look at hiring someone. Even if it’s only for a short time while you learn the ropes, it will cut months of frustration off your learning time.
So many people give up on their goals because they’re not getting the results they hoped for, and don’t know what to do.
This is where hiring a pro can be the difference between success and failure.
Double down on yourself
Hacking your mindset and finding the help you need is all good, but at the end of the day you do need to commit to doing the work that will take you to your goal.
Do you want to be the kind of person who quits when things get hard, or are you going to push through, no matter what?
Do you want to look for reasons why you failed, or make commitments to succeed?
If you double down on your commitment to achieving your goals, and you refuse to quit, you will get there.
There will be struggles along the way, at times it will be hard. It will get boring, and you’ll have to sacrifice; but if you persevere and keep moving forward, you’ll succeed in the end.
