It's that time of year again. Time to ease out the old and usher in the new. Time to make that New Year's resolution. But how successful has that been for you? For many, it's not a winning proposition, no matter what they resolve to change in the forthcoming year.
According to FranklinCovey, the time management experts, nearly four out of five people will not keep their New Year's resolutions. In fact, their survey found that only 23 percent of those making resolutions, be they for losing weight or being more financially conservative (or whatever), kept their commitment to themselves. Even worse, 35 percent of resolutions never made it to the end of January before being broken.
Why can't people keep their New Year's resolutions? Too drunk when they made them? Lack of commitment? What?
According to the survey, 40 percent said that they had so many other things to do that they couldn't keep their resolutions. Another 33 percent said they weren't really committed to their resolutions to begin with.
So have you made your New Year's resolution yet? Do you intend to? And if you do, do you intend to work at keeping it?
This year's No. 1 resolution (again according to FranklinCovey, who do an annual survey) is becoming more physically fit. It is followed by improving one's financial condition (a perennial favorite), improving one's health, losing weight (another perennial favorite), and increasing one's reading intake.
Of course, making New Year's resolutions (usually done on New Year's Eve and in a reflective and forward-looking hopeful mood) is an attempt at improving one's self and/or to effect change in some form. It should be noted that any positive attempts, no matter their duration, should be seen as improvements, even if minor or ephemeral.
But keeping a resolution is like keeping a promise. And nobody likes to fail in this regard. That is why it is helpful to make resolutions that are realistic and treat them as goals. Achievement is its own reward, presenting the committed with increased self-worth and self-esteem.
About two decades ago, this writer found the only way to ensure that his New Year's resolution(s) would be kept was to make a lasting one and stick to it. It was simply this: No more New Year's resolutions.
It was and has been a resolution easily kept.
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