I think an example would be helpful to better understand what I mean by giving resolutions their own place and reading or reviewing them daily. Let’s use the popular example of weight loss. This resolution would be difficult to forget because we see ourselves in the mirror everyday as an inevitable reminder. To write down “Lose Weight” and read it every day seems pointless. However, writing down the things you intend to do in order to lose weight and reviewing them daily is important to success.
Take the example of the working mother of two who wants to lose weight. She decides on a few small simple things she will do to change her current routine and help her lose weight. One of them is to take a healthy satisfying lunch to work each day instead of grabbing something from the nearby deli or restaurant. Each morning she is focused on the children, what needs to be done at work, and what needs to be ready when she gets home; she forgets to get the healthy food out of the refrigerator. One night she actually thinks about the next day’s lunch, packs up a healthy meal, and doesn’t give it another thought the next morning as she runs the kids out to the bus stop and jumps into her car.
If this working mom wrote down her small simple decisions about losing weight, put them into an attractive wood box, and simply read them every day, she would begin to remember her healthy lunch.
If you don’t attempt to immediately add your resolutions into you daily time management and your routine, what are you supposed to do with them??
I would argue the power of routine is strong enough to be contemplated as a worthy opponent to our success. Believing we can simply add to our routine or change it is some meaningful way is naive and will find us back in the comfort zone of familiarity before we can say “rumpelstiltskin.” Tough opponents require us to be cunning and smart when we go up against them.
Do not lump your resolutions with the rest of the, sometimes menial, daily list. They deserve better. Create them in written or graphic form and set them apart; give them their own special place and treat them like royalty.
You can immediately add reading or review of your resolutions to your daily routine without much trouble. This is a minor addition and can quickly become an enjoyable and inspirational part of your day.
The point when resolutions go from simply being reviewed to becoming part of the action is the point when we can no longer stand the fact that we are only reading them and not doing them. At this point, routine will gladly give way to the idea of a change.
Today is the day – January 1st 2009. This is the first day of the rest of the year. Whether you have made your resolutions or are still contemplating them, its time to give real consideration to how you will keep them.
Dr. Pamela Dodd, author of The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques: How to Get More Done Without Driving Yourself Crazy was quoted in a press release on PRWEB today with 3 specific suggestions for increasing your success rate.
They are great suggestions, but experience tells me they do not address the real cause of resolution fatalities. Dr. Dodd wisely talks about time as the ultimate killer, but does not include the concept of routine. It’s an existing routine – something we all have – that makes it so difficult to keep any resolution that requires us to alter that routine.
Working on time management skills, typically means dealing with the daily to-do list.
Resolutions are personal growth or “greater good” goals and you should not attempt to keep them by immediately adding them into the time management of your daily routine.
Once you have carved your resolutions in stone, take the next critical step of figuring out how you will keep them. Tomorrow’s blog will specifically look at what do to with resolutions to greatly increase your chance of success.
