The first week of a brand new year of opportunities has ended, and you find the fire that you had is quickly turning to a dim flame.
Aspirations are the easy part of resolutions to better your life. As the days progress, the realization that the new year didn’t come with additional hours on the clock leaves us as barren trees; fruitless in our endeavors.
There is a secret ingredient to success that you may not have tried before now, making you blossom in everything you set your mind to.
No matter what your New Year resolutions are, there is one method to use in order to accomplish the seemingly unattainable.
Dr. Thomas Hills, writing for Psychology Today reveals how to start a habit of reaching your potential:
“Make lists of your goals. Write down what you need to do to achieve each one, in as much detail as you can (what, where, and when). And do this every day, or as often as you can.”
This is too simple! Could this be it?
Yes! This scientific approach is called implementation intentions and is “behind books like ‘Eat the Frog’ and ‘The 7 Habits of Highly Successful People’”, according to Psychology Today.
Creating the habit of setting goals, putting them to paper, and then mapping out how to accomplish them before putting it into action works for any goal that you have made.
Let’s look at one of the classic New Year resolutions. Say you want to learn a new language this year. First, write at the top of the page this specific goal, then find how to make that possible.
Pick out a language curriculum, and purchase it. Make sure to do your research on the style of learning to make sure your time restraints and resources are compatible.
You can block out an hour Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening for an hour (maybe when the family is watching television), and use that time to study and practice.
Have an alarm set on your phone 30 minutes prior to the start of study time, with childcare lined up to leave you undistracted. Give your spouse ideas to do with the kids if they are not into television, like a pre-packaged craft, books to read, or an evening bike ride.
Set a place aside in the home that is your designated study nook, whether it is the dining room table, a desk in your room, or a quiet spot on the garden bench.
A study by Gollwitzer and Brandstatter discovered just how effective implementation intentions is through their research.
They asked participants to write in how they had spent Christmas break, but the report had to be submitted within 48 hours after the holiday.
Half the participants were asked before the study began on a questionnaire exactly when and where they were going to write said report. The other half were not asked to get specific about turning in the questionnaire.
Three-fourths of the participants who formed implementation intentions in the questionnaire mailed it on time, while only a third of the control group made it within 48 hours.
Moral of the story is that getting extremely specific about how you are going to accomplish a goal you set is the real drive behind success.
And this isn’t the only study that proves implementation intentions is your route to making all your goals this year a reality.
Psychology Today reported:
“A recent meta-analysis, based on nearly 100 studies, found that this result has been replicated many times and has a reliably strong effect. Indeed, it is probably one of the strongest effects for behavior change we know of.”
Successful people have this in common, they set a goal, map out how to do it, and then put it into action.
A journal can be for more than writing down your feelings and what you did in the day, it can be to write what you are going to do tomorrow; making it more future-oriented.
Dr. Stacia Pierce, author, life coach and founder of Lifecoach2women.com, told Inc, a magazine based out of New York that highlights small businesses that have made it, that:
“For years I’ve kept a journal to chronicle my life, plan for my dreams and strategize my goals. It is one of the important success habits that I do daily. Journaling empowers me to take my ideas and turn them into reality. What’s written is real. Once the words and images hit the paper, you have now crystallized a thought or idea.”
Today is a new day, a day to begin putting this effective method into action, a day to make that endless “to-do” list a “done” list.
Get a journal, scrap piece of paper, or word processor document and begin mapping out your future.
You will no longer have your goals be just a talking point during afternoon playgroup. All you have to do is dream, plan, and do.
(h/t Mommy Underground)