The new year is a perfect time to set yourself goals and create new habits. Year after year, there seems to be the same struggle. New year passes and there’s a lot of motivation and a buzz around the goals people set for themselves. A month down the line, give or take, some will have fallen off the wagon completely or are just about keeping up with what they set out to achieve. If you resonate with this, great keep reading. The bad news is I don’t think you will like the reason that this keeps happening…
This is why you fail to achieve your goals
Make 2021 the year that you prove yourself wrong. Show yourself that you can do it. Everyone is capable of change and we can achieve anything we put our minds to. So what goes wrong?
Think back to the last time that you failed to achieve a goal that you set out for yourself? What happened? The answer isn’t that it just didn’t work for you – there is a very specific reason why you didn’t succeed.
The classic downfall of a new exercise routine
Let me give you an example: I had started a new fitness regime, it was going fine for a couple of weeks. Then, it started to become a struggle. I would wake up and lay there considering the possibility of working out that morning for so long that I then only had enough time to get ready for work and head out the door. After work? I would get home and convince myself that I was just too tired to workout.
Where it all goes wrong
So what happened? It wasn’t that I was too tired, or that I didn’t feel like it. It was me making a conscious decision to fail. The second you decide not to stick to your commitment, you are choosing to fail. You may be thinking it was just one day off, however, I’ve found too often that once you let yourself give in, it’s extremely difficult to keep going. Nobody else is going to care if you do or don’t do it, ultimately, there aren’t any consequences, only to yourself.
How to REALLY achieve those goals?
Create smart goals
Smart stands for; Specific Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound. By looking at your goals in more depth it is going to be so much more likely that you will actually achieve them. If you don’t, you could be pressuring yourself to achieve something that physically is not possible in the time constraint you are allocating for it. Plan your goal so you know exactly what you are going to be doing and when and there is very little room for contemplation.
21/90 rule
A little while ago I was researching about habits and if there was a guide for how long it takes, on average, to stop or start doing something. The rough answer was 21 days, depending on what the thing was, this will vary for everyone. However, after researching more deeply, I read an article that said you should do something for 21 days to set the habit and then continue for 90. Don’t give up on something until you hit that 90 days and then decide how you feel about it. Make tweaks in between if you really aren’t enjoying the process, but don’t give up. I believe that a lot of the time we lose motivation and decide to give up far too early. At that moment, we decide to fail.
Discipline
The bottom line is your ability to discipline yourself in order to keep going. If you don’t have discipline, you will give up, time and time again. Read this: Why Motivation is Bullsh*t. The motivation won’t always be there, we have to learn to do the things we don’t feel like doing.
Choose your goals based on what you really want. You have to be doing it for you and no one else. Nobody else is going to drive you along and no one else is going to be affected if you give up. It all has to be for you. Before setting your goal, have a clear vision of your future in your mind. What does your life look like having completed your goal? This should be a big driving factor in your ability to motivate yourself and wake up every day, excited to push yourself harder. I would love to hear about your goals for 2021. Let me know what you are going to achieve and the plan that will get you there.
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