How to Make Resolutions that Stick

Resolutions: Lose weight, make more money, have more time, exercise, find love, or grow your business are typical ones.  

Research shows that by about a week after the new year, 25% of us will have given up on resolutions and, by year’s end, only 10% of us will have achieved our goals. 

From my own experience, I know I can achieve things by sheer will and discipline, but often I am miserable in the process. 

I have learned that focusing on how I want to feel about my goals makes achieving them much easier, and is way more motivating and fun. 

FOCUS ON HOW YOU WANT TO FEEL ABOUT YOUR GOALS:

Play with making goals that make you feel excited, peaceful or happy, or whatever other positive emotion you want to feel.

I want all of my goals to make me feel FREE and EXCITED.  I also want to feel PEACEFUL every day….especially with my kids!

I am adding a few more feelings I want to have with my goals this year:

  •  To have more SELF LOVE:  I want to LOVE my wrinkles…and my other flaws society says I have and I want to love myself when I have detoured from my goals;
  •  To have more GRATITUDE:  Life is a gift…I know that when I am grateful for small things, I am happier working towards my goals;
  •  To be AUTHENTIC in all that I do:  Letting go of my ingrained need for approval and fear is a daily practice for me which helps me be bold about my goals.

ONCE YOU DECIDE HOW YOU WANT TO FEEL WITH YOUR GOALS…THEN IDENTIFY THE “HOW:”

So you may be thinking, ok I know how I want to feel….but then HOW do I achieve them? 

When you are in the space of experiencing the feeling, quite often the “how” of reaching the goal will appear.  The “how” should make you excited or happy as well.

Research supports having a routine, system, friend or group to support you may help you reach your goal.  All of these things have helped me….especially when I am excited about that routine, system, friend or group that I have chosen to support me. 

If you have that routine, system, friend or group scheduled, it can help you greatly when you are feeling unmotivated. Likewise, reminding yourself how you will feel after you work towards that goal will help.

For example, if I have a goal to exercise 3 times a week, I plan at the beginning of the week how I am going to do that.  When I lack the motivation to go to the gym on Friday, I am much more excited about going if I have a scheduled gym date with a friend. Likewise, having my routine of planning to listen to a great podcast while lifting weights opposed to being yelled at by a boot camp teacher, gets me out the door. Reminding myself that I will feel happy after I exercise also helps me. 

I am still creating my “list” of what I want to accomplish this year, but it is my plan to do that list from a feeling space of freedom, excitement, gratitude, authenticity and self love, especially when I mess up!.  

Play with how you want to feel about your goals, and you will figure out the HOW. Get support if you need it!

xo
Kathy

If you want a pampered day for YOU to identify how you want to FEEL about Your 2018 Goals and get ideas how to create them…SIGN UP NOW for the AWESOME retreat I am having on 1/13 kathymccabelifecoach.com/offeringsThere are a few spots left!!