Less than 20% of people keep their New Year’s resolutions.
What’s most crazy, to me, is the fact that over 20% can’t keep them for a week.
There could be a number of reasons for failing at a resolution. Maybe the most important reason is the resolution itself. After that, probably not understanding yourself. Something many of us avoid thinking about.
The most common resolutions are pretty much:
- Lose Weight
- Earn More Money
- Spend Less Money
Those are great goals, great items to think about and strive for. But we know that the vast majority fail. Especially with the diet.
When I think about resolutions I like to think about my schedule. My daily habits and routines. For work and for my personal life. Pretty much all 24 hours in the day for each day of the week.
Perhaps the best resolution you can have is to audit your schedule.
Set aside a couple hours near the first of the year. Look back at the last regular week you had for work and personal time. Then look at a few more. It might change over the course of the year, but most of us have a pretty consistent schedule.
Break it down into hours. Look at your typical day. Do your best not to judge yourself for things like looking at your phone or watching TV or things like that. At least not yet. Just document what a typical day is like for each day of the week.
Now think about what you want from life. It’s easy, but not always simple to do. But maybe you want to lose weight or you want to earn more money or you want to spend less money. Think about what you value most. Think about the future…5, 10 and even 50 years into the future. Imagine your life.
Now come back to your daily, weekly and monthly schedule.
Start making changes to your schedule. The most important items come first. At the times during the day when you’re most likely to do them.
Your schedule will likely be different from those of other people. That’s fine.
One big thing to remember is not to overload your schedule. Allow yourself some time for unexpected things. They always happen. So plan for them. At worst, you have time for it. At best, you have extra time to do whatever you want. It’s nice having extra time.
Simply auditing your schedule every year can have a huge impact on your life. Not just in the first month, but well beyond. You form routines. You form habits. Habits that you’re in control of. Too often we get into habits that occur by chance. Without conscious thought.
Instead of setting a regular resolution this year, audit your schedule. It takes a few hours at most. Next year do the same thing. You’ll already have a head start on your long-term thinking and values. You can tweak the schedule every year. And every year you’ll likely get a little off track.
That’s okay.
Just give yourself a better chance for getting what you want. For doing what you want.
Audit your schedule.