Commit to the Process

This New Year, how did you structure your resolutions? Are you setting yourself up for success?

…or did you sabotage yourself from the start?

When we make a resolution, we are usually imagining some goal. A poorly structured resolution stops there, only focusing on the goal and not detailing how to get there.

This is the equivalent of standing on a beach and deciding that you want to be on that island you can see way off in the distance, but then not thinking at all about how. You can’t just transport yourself from here to that island (sadly, we have not yet achieved our Star Trek future), so you’re going to have to do a bit more planning.

You’ll need to figure out how you want to cross that distance, and that decision is largely based on who you see yourself being when you do it. After that, you’ll need to figure out the specific steps you’ll need to take to make this vision happen.

Will you be a swimmer? You’ll need to learn how to swim, to learn to swim in an ocean, to build the strength and stamina required for that distance.

Will you be a sailor? You’ll need to learn sailing, get comfortable reading maritime maps and feeling the wind, and you’ll have to get a boat.

Will you be a daredevil free fall skydiver to challenge Felix Baumgartner, rocketing up into the air and then landing in the water a short swim away from your destination? Um. I don’t even know where you’d start on this path…

Tropical metaphors aside, the point is that you’re not going to get to your goal if you haven’t fully mapped out the process you’ll need to achieve it… and then commit to doing that process. Set up a system to track your commitment to the process, preferably on a daily basis.

Of course, it’s good to track your progress towards your goal, but only periodically. Choose reasonable intervals which can reveal measurable results - not so frequent that you’ll get discouraged if you have an off day or the progress is slow, or so far apart that you won’t be able to course-correct or refine your process.

Structure your resolution about making that commitment to the process and you’ll vastly increase your chances of being part of the 20% of people who stay on their resolution past January 31.