3 Ways To Help Ensure You Achieve The New Year Results You Seek

Sure, it’s admirable to make real efforts to improve yourself. But if you truly want to be successful in reaching your goals and resolutions, you need to stop doing things that don’t make sense. 

Sounds obvious… but sadly, it can be a rarity for people because the reality is that the busier you get, the more you work and drive forward, the more you get in a rhythm of daily life that can pull you away from achieving your New Year's goals. And while it might seem like everything is going well from the outside looking in, internally, you know that you’re starting to drift further and further from your goals and what you truly want. Eventually, that will lead to bigger problems in life as the stress builds up and your mind gets even further distracted.

So, what can you do about that? Well, in this performance and productivity message, I’ll highlight 3 suggestions to help ensure that you follow through with your goals and resolutions and ultimately achieve the results you seek.

Strategy #1: Ensure Your Goals are Realistic, Specific and Achievable

Let’s begin with the most obvious and straightforward suggestion, one that I have highlighted previously several times, and that is to make certain that your goals and resolutions are realistic, specific and achievable? 

And have you considered the quality of your strategy for achieving it?

For example, if you know me, then you’ll know that I’ve been playing the guitar since I was in high school - let’s just say a while now! So let’s say your goal for the year, is to learn a new musical instrument. Well, it may not be realistic for you to plan on being a successful recording artist by only practicing a few times per month.

RELATED ARTICLE | Big Life Goals: My Ultimate Life Bucket List (and why you should have one, too)

Would you like some guidance and inspiration to set up your bucket list? Check out my guide, The Ultimate Life Bucket List and get started today!

However, what if your resolution was something like, “I will learn 3 new cords a week” or “I’ll learn one new song a month.” These are more realistic goals for the beginner. They’re very specific in their plan and, frankly, more practical than saying, “I’m going to use an app to learn to play the guitar”.

Of course, the example illustrates that if your resolution or method of achieving your goal isn’t realistic, change it today for better results.

Strategy #2: Keep Your Goals Top-of-Mind

You might have experienced for yourself that it can be very difficult to sustain the energy and effort it takes to achieve new goals and resolutions, especially when you consider that has to be done within the context of your already busy and hectic life.

In fact, a recent article claimed that the modern American puts off no less than 14 things on their to-do list, and more than 20% say they are actually putting off 20 or more tasks. So even though you might have had a strong intent, and you might have even started off strong, as time goes on, it can become more and more difficult to remember and prioritize it. 

RELATED ARTICLE | Here's the Biggest Mistake to Avoid When Setting New Year's Resolutions

That’s why it can be a powerful exercise to think about creative ways to keep your resolution top of mind. One technique is to write down your new goal. Maybe that’s in your daily journal, in your calendar, or maybe you jot it on a sticky note and place it on your mirror or the refrigerator. You can even keep it written down on a paper on the dash of your car. 

When your resolution is in your thoughts every day, it stays more top of mind for you to prioritize it and be intentional with it so that you’re more likely to follow through with it.

Strategy #3: Seek Support and Accountability 

And finally, if you’re truly serious about reaching your new goal, seek out the support and accountability to ensure you succeed. Research shows that it’s easier to achieve our goals when we’re not trying to go it on your own. The reality is that even though you are likely more than equipped to set and reach your goals, challenges and obstacles and just life can get in the way.

That’s not an exaggeration! 

According to a recent NY Post article, roughly one and four people say that they’re too preoccupied with work to make it to the doctor’s office. Life happens! And when it does, seeking out the right support and accountability is critical for achieving winning results. In fact, its a game changer. 

Smaller goals and resolutions are great to share with someone close. Including your spouse or friends to support you. By talking about your goals with your spouse and writing them down, you’ve already improved your odds of success. After all, people close to you often want you to be successful in your goals. 

For bigger goals, ones that impact the family well-being as a unit, you might choose to seek out a professional to help guide and support you. That’s becoming more and more popular because the outcomes are undeniably positive and well, the results speak for themselves.  There’s no way you can just forget about your New Year’s resolution when you have someone invested in you and your success as much as you are. 

And in closing, it’s important to remember that we can always take a moment when we need to and tap the brakes and if we get distracted or off track from our goals.   A great accountability partner or coach will help you to return to the practices that you know are rooted in clarity, good judgment, good principles, and good health, and get you back on track. 

Summary

While most top performers are readily equipped with the raw ability to reach the vast majority of their goals, even the highest achievers can sometimes struggle and be challenged when it comes to reaching and sustaining that success over the long term.

That's why top achievers regularly seek out the right strategies and accountability to support them throughout their goal-reaching journey. 

Implementing these simple yet powerful strategies can be the difference-maker in helping you to move forward on the path towards reaching your goals and experiencing one of your most inspiring years ever!

Damien Vanderburg is a small business consultant and a certified high performance coach with a focus on personal development, high price-point sales and serial entrepreneurship. With more than 20 years experience teaching, training and developing high performers, Damien helps those who want to transform effectiveness, maximize potential and accelerate results. He is also the co-founder of Counterpoint Test Prep, a test prep and college app consulting company. 

Go to www.damienvanderburg.com and learn more. 

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA!

By the way, in case you missed it, I recently hosted a 2021 Year in Review Workshop designed to help people look back at the last 12 months and reflect so that you can step into the New Year with confidence and a plan. 

Watch the replay for FREE by clicking here to check it out!

Look, we’re both serious about accomplishing your most important goals in life. Let’s make it official and work together.

If you want to focus more on achieving your life's most important goals this year, both personally and professionally, without sacrificing your happiness, joy or sanity, let's connect and achieve them together. Click here to start a short questionnaire and let's see if it might make sense to explore your options in working with me.

FOLLOW ME ON SOCIAL MEDIA!