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Sticking With Your New Year’s Resolution

“New Year’s resolutions rarely work, because good intentions don’t often survive a collision with reality.”

I read that quote by Seth Godin on New Year’s Day a few years ago. Talk about discouragement. After reading it, my immediate reaction was to disagree, ultimately followed by admission. Perhaps Mr. Godin is right.
It is reasonable to believe that a large percentage of those who make New Year’s Resolutions will find themselves vowing to the same things at 11:59pm on December 31st of the following year. If that were not the case, Weight Watchers, life coaches, financial gurus and many self-help services may very well be out of business for good. If the redundancy is inevitable, why bother? I believe the answer is in the old adage that without vision, people perish.

Discipline and perseverance are two skills that I have learned in my entrepreneurship journey. These days, when the clock strikes midnight on New Year’s Eve, I feel relief and not disappointment or regret. Instead of agonizing about the what-ifs, I get to celebrate meeting outcomes, and getting ready for the challenge of new goals. The secret is not in a magic potion or a drastic change in my circumstances, just three small habits that proved to make a big difference.

1. I write down my goals, and I hold myself accountable to them. When I speak at workshops, I usually encourage attendees to write their vision and hang it up in plain sight. It is nearly impossible to ignore a reminder on your refrigerator, or on your bathroom mirror. Hold yourself accountable to your goals by never allowing them out of your sight.

2. I recruited. There are some who will support your ideas, and others who will not rest until their doubt becomes your doubt. Let those people go. If you allow those people to continue to influence you, the process of undoing the damage will demand time that will take away from achieving your goals. Be purposeful about building (and maintaining) relationships with people who are constructive and will support your goals.

3. I took action. Nike has one of the best slogans around: “just do it”- three simple words that separate the successful from the unsuccessful. When I started my new consulting business, I spent months in silent planning. On New Year’s Day, I emailed friends, associates and anyone that may be remotely interested about my new business. I did that because I did not want to put off until tomorrow what I was able to do that day. Another reason was that exposing my idea in that way held me accountable to do what I said I would do. My email generated questions, which allowed me to tweak and improve my idea.

As I reflect on my personal and professional pursuits over the years, I realize that not all of my goals have been met. As an entrepreneur, I now appreciate that. To meet all of my goals means that things are too easy and there is less incentive to work hard, be creative, network and collaborate.

Over the next few months, as you think about your New Year’s resolution, I suggest you think with a dose of reality, but with an equal amount of optimism that what seems far away is very much possible, as long as you are willing to put in the work!

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Andrena Sawyer is the President of P.E.R.K. Consulting. For her work with entrepreneurs and nonprofits, she has been honored among The Black Business Review’s Top 40 Under 40 and the International Alliance of Women 100 Award. Along with work with entrepreneurs and nonprofits, she is the author of The Misadventures of a New Entrepreneur, The Other Side of Assertiveness and The Long Way Home.