Here's the Problem with New Year's Resolutions

According to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, of the people who typically make New Year's Resolutions, 64% are successful in maintaining those resolutions beyond one month. How's it going for YOU? To increase your odds of achieving what you want this year, I'd like to suggest elevating your perspective to define an overall Vision for 2015. It's important to have a compelling vision, for you personally as well as for your business or organization. That way, when life and work demands pull you in multiple directions, you keep perspective.

Here are four steps to define your 2015 Vision:

1. Get Prepared for a Fresh Start in 2015
Consider any setbacks or disappointments from last year that you need to let go of in order to begin anew. Can you forgive yourself, and forgive any other people who may have been involved? Bringing old resentments into the new year can stop you from spotting new opportunities because your lens is being clouded by your previous experiences. You can learn from the past without letting it hold you back from trying again or keeping you mired in fear or doubt.

2. Get (Re)connected to Your WHY 
What core mission or purpose inspires you? What motivates you to get out of bed in the morning and keep striving for another day? Revealing your true intentions can make it easier to choose between competing ideas, requests or tasks. Typically, when you choose to act according to your intentions, you feel more at ease and less conflicted. It’s because you are being authentic by honoring your deepest desires and priorities.

3. Get Honest About Your Patterns 
Sometimes we can hold ourselves back from realizing our vision; sometimes this happens when we encounter new situations that take us out of our comfort zone. We end up doing the exact opposite of what we intend to do. These behaviors, and/or habits are blind spots because you're not always aware of them and/or fully aware of the impact they can have on fulfilling your intentions. What attitudes, behaviors, and/or habits could get in your way of fulfilling your intentions?  

4. Get Clear on What You Want 
As you look back at the close of 2015, what will be your most memorable achievements? What will you have felt and experienced, and with whom? What key milestones will have helped you achieve your vision? You might consider doing some creative visualization to imagine your life as it will be when you have fulfilled your intentions in 2015.

What’s important is to define and articulate your vision so that you are declaring that this is what you want to achieve. Then, perhaps you can relax a bit, and as Deepak Chopra says: “Let the Universe handle all the details.”