You began the new year full of resolve to either lose weight, straighten out your finances, or get more organized – you may have even committed to doing all three. Yet here you are, just over six weeks later, and it’s likely that 80% you realized what U.S. New & World Report said would happen. That, at the most, you’d only last about six weeks before abandoning whatever promise you made to yourself on January 1. If you’re among the 20% who are sticking with your plan, that’s fantastic! Stay with it!
For the rest of you, don’t despair. March 1 is right around the corner. Use this date to hit the reset button. Why wait until next January to tackle what could likely be an even greater challenge next year? Approach your goal(s) with the same level of enthusiasm you did when the ball dropped on New Year’s eve. (If you think about it, dropping the ball is not exactly the metaphor you need to inspire sticking with your New Year’s resolutions, but I digress). But this time, instead of keeping your resolution a secret or telling that friend or two, who you know full well will be no help whatsoever when it comes to assuring your success, enlist the support of people who share your passion and commitment to whatever goal you’ve identified.
Back in January, I asked the question Who Will Your Peers Be in 2016? It’s time to ask this question again because if you surround yourself with the right people, you’ll actually give yourself a fighting chance at sticking with your plan. While this is a central premise of our book, The Power of Peers: How the Company You Keep Drives Leadership, Growth & Success, you know deep down from personal experience that this is true. John C. Norcross, Ph.D., ABPP, author of Changeology: 5 Steps to Realizing your Goals and Resolutions has studied how people can make permanent and transformative changes in their lives. “Going public increases accountability and allows for more support,” he says.
If you’re part of a group who is all after the same thing, you’ll be surrounded by cheerleaders, people who will provide their advice or technical expertise, and those who will keep you on track, while you do the same for them. On February 29th, you won’t find any balls dropping, at least anywhere I know of, so if you start anew with a fresh approach on March 1, I seriously doubt that your peers will allow YOU to drop the ball a second time!
If you plan to hit the reset button, take some time between now and March 1 to identify the people who will help you achieve your goals and enlist their support. You’ll be doing them a service as well. Keep us all posted on your progress! You can do this!