An article in US News & World Report published in 2015 stated that about 80% of New Year’s Resolutions fail by the second week of February. I doubt Valentine’s Day is to blame for this. There are a lot of reasons why this is–everything from having goals that are too lofty to not having a high enough reward to yourself for achieving it. But guess what? There are some topics we need to talk about before we even get to writing down reasonable New Year’s Resolutions and creating actionable steps for achieving them.
Fear not, I do plan on providing you tips on how to set and achieve resolutions. Just not this month. So let’s take resolutions off the table for a few weeks. This month we’ll talk about you. Yes, you. (Did you just cringe a little bit?)
If the thought of focusing on you gave you a moment of pause, then you need to follow along with me this month. We will dive into the factors that may be causing you to struggle with meeting your resolutions year after year. We will start off with big picture topics like who you are as a person and what you want for yourself. Then we will move on to specific barriers that have kept you from maintaining your resolutions. So not only am I telling you to NOT focus on resolutions (not yet anyway), I am going to show you how to really tackle the obstacles keeping you from reaching your goals.
This is the best present you could have gotten this holiday season!! Unless you woke up to a car with a big red bow around it parked in your driveway…that might be better than this (as far as tangible presents go at least).
Let’s start with an exercise. Not that kind of exercise…I mean a pen-and-paper exercise not squats-and-lunges. Grab this FREE downloadable worksheet called, “WHO AM I?” I am a believer in the idea you can’t know where you are going if you don’t know where you are. This worksheet is your first step to understanding you. The first page asks you to write down your own thoughts on who you are. The second page allows you to ask someone you trust (like a good friend or a close family member) to offer some words about who you are. This is particularly helpful if you are someone who really struggles to see your own positive traits. Finally, the third page allows you to evaluate the information from both points of view to create a fuller picture of who you are.
Come back next week for your next steps!!
Again, you can find the worksheet here: