Goal Setting - Why New Year’s Resolutions Waste Your Time & What to Do to Accomplish More Goals
publication date: Jan 27, 2010
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author/source: Karim Ismail
By Karim Ismail
If you’re looking to accomplish more goals this coming year then forget about New Year’s resolutions. The people that profit the most from New Year’s resolutions are…
The people that make the resolutions don't tend to benefit
as much from their resolutions. Case in point: When is the last time you heard
someone say something like, "I started my successful business as a result
of a New Year's resolution?” I've never heard anyone say that and I suspect you haven't
either. That's because resolutions are mostly based on feelings. It's the
beginning of a new year and we want it to be a new beginning for ourselves as
well. This desire for change is well and good, of course. The
momentum that comes from change helps propel us forward. But instead of
expecting a resolution to give you this momentum (it won't) I recommend trying
this exercise instead. What You Should Be Doing Instead of Relying on Your New Year’s Resolutions 1. After the
first of the year, schedule an appointment with yourself. Grab a notebook or a
laptop and go to a quiet place—a coffee shop, a room in your house, or even a
night alone in a hotel—and write a letter to yourself as if you were writing
from the future, one year from now. In my book Keep Any Promise I write about the importance of
setting audacious goals. In this letter, describe what you are doing a year from
now and make sure what you're describing —career, house, vacations or whatever
your writing about is audacious as possible. But, don't make it totally outside
the realm of possibility. 2. Remember, you are writing the letter to yourself from the future. Address the letter to yourself and sign it with your name. Here's an example of something I might write: "Dear Karim, No doubt that it is a freezing cold Canadian winter day as
you're reading this. Rest assured that a year from this date you will be
spending a vacation in the Fiji Islands. The weather here is perfect. The Keep Any Promise Live Workshops were more successful
this past year than I could have possibly imagined. Enrollment was more than
triple what it was last year, making the Fiji trip possible..." Write in this way for as many paragraphs and pages as you
wish. Don't worry about grammar and writing style because no one else has to
see this letter. The whole purpose is to get you thinking beyond mere
resolutions and thinking much bigger and more long term than you normally
would. 3. Don't restrict yourself to things like career and vacation. Feel free to talk about things like home decor and other small goals you might have. Those are important too. For example, maybe there's an expensive appliance you've wanted for some time but couldn't afford. Things like this have a place in the letter too. 4. After writing
the letter, read it very carefully and meditate upon it. In your mind's eye
visualize the things in your letter coming to pass. Then put the letter away
until the next year. Resist the temptation to pull it out and read it during
the year. Wait and reread it a year from now and before writing your next
letter. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how close you've come to
achieving the audacious goals of the previous year—maybe you will have even
surpassed some of them! Accomplishing Goals Can Become Automatic If you follow my advice, you will accomplish more goals than
if you just set mere resolutions that fade away before Valentine's Day. You'll
find yourself automatically making decisions throughout the year that will make
your audacious goals possible. This will happen without you even realizing it.
For example, if I had set the audacious goal of a trip to Fiji, throughout the
year I will automatically notice ads for Fiji. I would find myself making
decisions in my business to increase my income so that I can pay for the trip.
It has a snowball effect! The story format really helps pull everything together and it will help you visualize your audacious goals and implant them in your subconscious. Now, you will be able to achieve more in the next 12 months than you have in the previous 12 years. About the Author
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In his new book “Keep Any Promise,” Karim Ismail