THE LIFESTYLE ENTREPRENEUR

Read time - 4 minutes

The Anti-New Year’s Resolution Resolution

New Year’s resolutions don’t work - we can all agree on that, right?

The statistics say that 80% fail by the 2nd week in February.

There are many reason they fail - one of the biggest ones being taking on too big a change too fast. Relying on motivation to get us going, and when the motivation starts to wane we haven’t made the change enough of a lifestyle to keep it up. So we quit.

We’ve probably all done this - I know I have.

So today I want to lay out a better approach to New Year’s Resolutions.

Spoiler alert - I want you to start it now.

Note - Generally this exercise would be done as part of a broader Personal Planning Process (I outline mine in The Lifestyle Entrepreneur #8). The point of this exercise is to take a priority that you know you’re going to want to start as a New Year’s resolution, and make it more successful by starting smaller steps, early.

If you’re going to participate in a year-end process I’d simply recommend you include this goal in your annual plan.

Here’s how I tackle goals like this:

1. Future Self - Conduct a visualization exercise to determine who you want to become in the long-run, as it relates to the goal in mind.

   Write down specific details about that future person that will help bring her to life.

2. Establish your priority or goal - These are the same as 90-day Rocks made when doing business planning.

   1. What are your 3-7 priorities over the next 90-days?

   2. Put them in SMART format - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevent, Timely

3. Identify the limiting beliefs that will keep you from that goal - This is part of the future-selfing process.

   Specifically - when you list out your goal in SMART format, take a few minutes writing down the beliefs, habits, addictions, that will keep you from achieving that goal.

4. Create a “Rock Roadmap” - Break your goal down into smaller milestones that if accomplished, will lead you towards successful accomplishment of the goal.

5. Create accountability - Create a weekly scorecard, and share the goal with someone you can report your results weekly.

6. Adjust your environment - Audit your schedule, physical space, physical setup, and make small adjustments to allow you to begin towards your goal.

7. Ask yourself - what’s the least I could do to make progress towards my goal?

   Are there small tasks that, if life gets hectic over the next month, I could do in a few minutes each day to make small amounts of progress?

8. Start.

This process can take a long time if you want, or it can be done in less than an hour.

I recommend spending less than an hour on it and beginning now with the “least I can do” tasks that will lead you towards goal completion.

The important thing is to do something towards your goal every day, sticking to your accountability, and committing to consistency.

Here’s an example of creating content online:

1. I want to be a content creator who has authority in leadership development, who gets invited on podcasts regularly, often wins business through online connections, and is seen as a local authority in my niche.

2. In Q1 2023 I’m going to execute a LinkedIn audience building strategy that results in 500 additional followers by the end of the quarter.

3. Limiting beliefs - I’m scared of publishing content, worried about what people will think of me.

4. Roadmap:

   1. Starting today:

      1. 15 minutes per day of commenting on other people’s posts on weekdays

      2. 5 Connection requests per day

      3. Create idea file and start loading content ideas

   2. by 12/31/23:

      1. Identify my ideal client profile (the person I’m writing to)

      2. Develop my draft content pillars - what are the 3-5 main topics I’m going to write about regularly

      3. 10 Draft posts created

   3. 1/1/23 - start posting:

      1. Commit to a 3x a week posting schedule

      2. Maintain daily commenting and connections

   4. 3/31/23 - End of quarter analysis:

      1. Review top posts

      2. Do assessment of whether I can continue

      3. Make plans for subsequent quarter

5. Accountability partner - A friend who’s also starting content.

   1. Scorecard:

      1. Weekly Connection requests

      2. Posts Made

      3. Weekly Impressions

      4. Followers each week

6. Environmental adjustment - Schedule LinkedIn time on calendar, if I ever need to reschedule immediately find time that day to stick with it.

7. What’s the least thing I could do?

   1. If all else fails - I can log onto LinkedIn and comment on 10 posts.

8. Start this today

This is a simple approach using proven goal-setting and habit formation tools.

The general points in following this approach are:

1. Clear SMART goal

2. Broken down into manageable pieces

3. With really little things you can do every day even if life gets crazy

4. Starting now instead of at the start of the year

I’ve done this multiple times over the past year with great success.

Try it and let me know how it goes - the worst thing that’ll happen is you end up in the same spot you would with a normal New Year’s Resolution.

I bet if you follow the framework specifically though, you’ll have better results.

Talk to you next week,

Mike