When does the euphoric feeling Of a Happy New Year settle? How can you keep your momentum and energy going?
From the eve of the New Year, December 31st 2014, to the morning of January 2015, we are usually thankful and all pumped up for the New Year… New dreams! New goals! New opportunities!
According to Research from the University of Scranton, nearly 4 out of 10 people quit their resolutions before reaching the month of February. Even more will fall off after that. But what about you?
Right around February, This is when good feelings give way to true commitment, resilience and preparation. How did you prepare for the New year? If you didn’t quite prepare, you will find yourself drifting and loosing the strong grip you thought you had.
If you’re like most people who are growth minded, then you have goals for your health, relationships, faith, wealth, or personal development. These are the things that matter most to us, and yet it can be so easy to flame out after a few weeks even though you started with the best of intentions.
Life Happens… However life is in session, there are no dress rehearsals. You must stay focused and strive to be always present.
Doubt, distractions, discouragements, disappointments, fear and their cousins, should not have a fighting chance! Your goals are worth fighting for.
Anytime we try to do something important, we often encounter resistance. It could be following through on personal development, writing a book, putting together that business plan, reaching a significant milestone, sending that email, placing that phone call or clearing out your inbox! You know what I am talking about don’t you? The good news is, we can give these obstacles a good beating, forge ahead and stay the course.
3 Ways You Can Stay the Course
- Keep the big picture in view. Your goals must always be part of a big picture. Let’s face it, unless a goal is motivated by something big, it’s just a time waster. Whenever you find yourself in rut, it isn’t time to strategize, it’s time to step back and look again at the big picture. We have to imagine our desired outcomes and stay emotionally connected to them. Our dreams deserve at least that much, don’t they? If you find that your goals are disconnected and not tied to a big picture, it’s not too late to go back to the drawing board.
- Just do it! While we need to keep the big picture in view, you need to understand that motivation is not going to strike you like lightning. What is more likely to strike would be negative emotions we experience – Fear, doubt, disappointment, feeling overwhelmed—we may experience these emotions, but we don’t have to let them dictate our actions. Listen, the whole idea of motivation is a trap! Forget motivation, Just do it! Loose the weight, start that book, jump start that process. After you start doing the thing, that’s when motivation comes and makes it easy for you to keep doing it. You are more likely to act yourself into feeling than feel yourself into action.
- Raise your leadership lid. Your leadership ability determines your level of effectiveness. On a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate your self leadership ability? If you are unable to lead yourself you will not be very effective. Your lid determines your effectiveness.
Have a Happy and Productive Year!
