Ugh, Another New Year's Resolution?
Happy New Year folks! We have stepped into 2017, the year of the Rooster and an awesome year slated for members of WA.
I just want to spend a minute talking about “resolutions” and how they simply don’t work. If you are one to make New Year’s Resolution, I want you to make this year’s resolution to NEVER MAKE ANOTHER ONE AGAIN.
To understand why I am saying this with such conviction, I want to explain why resolutions don’t work and the people that set resolutions are naturally carrying forward bad habits and procrastinating actual progress in their lives.
Resolutioners are Procrastinators
I have communicated with an abundance of people in the past few months that stated that they were “going to wait until the new year to start a business”.
Outside of the date and the fact that the date now reads “2017”, there would have been absolutely no difference between starting that very day with their business and starting now...other than the fact that these folks are now 2 months behind in terms of the progress they could have achieved.
They will likely be motivated for a few weeks or even a month and then seek out another reason as to why they cannot continue.
The same is something that I commonly see with dieting. “I will start my diet after Christmas and the New Year”. Meanwhile, these folks have gained weight and lost 2 months of progress in their potential health.
If you have been an active gym goer, you will know full well there is an influx of people every January and the first few weeks of February at the gym (it can get crazy busy) and then there is a sudden drop off of the “resolutioners” as they have lost motivation. Maybe next year?
Those that actively work out and exercise through the year remain. The regulars so to speak.
Resolutions Never Work
On average, 8% of New Year’s Resolutions get “achieved” by the over 40% of people that partake in creating New Year’s Resolutions.
Yes, 8 people out of every 100 accomplish their goals. Whether this is to start a business, lose 10lbs, get more organized or to be a nicer person in the year ahead.
Failure rates are incredibly high, but why?
The reason once again pops up. Those same people making resolutions are those that are waiting until a specific date to start before they take action. Many people have likely waited “months” with their resolution idea.
Procrastination breeds more procrastination. It is a habit, just like working hard on your business is a habit. Just like exercising regularly or eating healthy is a habit. Just like staying organized is a habit. Having a clean house is a habit.
Conversely, being lazy and being unhealthy are habits. Being messy and disorganized is a habit. Having a messy house is a habit. And these negative habits all stem from one thing, the very thing that a “resolution” promotes. Procrastination.
Don’t Wait For Tomorrow for Anything
What better time is there to start something than now. If you continue to push things off until “tomorrow” it isn’t long before another year has passed.
Tomorrow doesn’t lead to action, it doesn’t lead to results, and it absolutely doesn’t lead to any form of success.
If you get anything out of this post I want it to be the fact that if you want to achieve anything at all, the best time to start working towards this achievement is right now. Don’t wait until XYZ, or there will always be a new XYZ.
Wishing everyone a very successful and fruitful 2017 ahead. We have some amazing projects that we have been quietly working on in the last year that you are going to see show face in 2017. We are absolutely looking forward to the year ahead!
Now I am off to go take some action on my weekly tasks….
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Thanks Kyle, no more waiting for XYZ for me. Its now or never for 2017 . Thanks for the great encouragement to going after our goals in our Wealthy Affiliate training for 2017. Looking forward for a wonderful new year with Kyle and the Wealthy Affiliate team for 2017. I pray God's favour overtake us and bring us as a team forward in our ranking in google and accross the whole internet Marketing and I claim wealth for all in Wealthy Affiliate in the mightiest name of Jesus Christ our triumphant and forever victorious Lord and blessed saviour. Amen. God Bless.
Happy New Year Kyle! Thanks for the great post, and I must agree. Change of the year shouldn't affect what we do but we can only use the phrase to kick "resolutioners' ass"... "Have you made a resolution yet? New year, new start. Buy this product and make your 2017 awesome!" Lol
LOL! I wrote a blog myself about this. It caused quite a stir, and a couple people were a little unnerved about it, my negativity about this topic but on the other hand, it has spawned other blogs which are now linked together.
You've found the same data I've come into with regard to the 8%, 49% and finally the rest who get absolutely no results at all! I have learned a lot from others what exactly resolutions are - and they're not what most people THINK they are!
An entire custom is based on these things being actual goals being carried out rather than what resolutions actually are - mere proposals, or more accurately, DECLARATIONS. How this got twisted around into the thing that it is today is out of this world! The whole thing is quite a circus.
I was told by one member that it wasn't my job to be bringing stuff like this up!
Well, I see I'm not the only one who sees this, and in fact, so do others, as I was happy to find! I even touched upon the procrastination part of this, though I didn't use the term, I gave it the treatment that this gives folks time to enjoy the things they know they need to give up!
I know you probably won't see this, but anyway, here it is :) I'm still here and just starting my 7th year.
As always great post! I think one of the things that people (myself included) need to work on is consistent self discipline . That sounds simplistic but it is really hard to achieve ! I know for myself whenever i accomplish something ,anything really i usually just write it down and keep it to myself and forge forward. But in a lot of ways when you go to many online platform they often (advocate setting goals )and sometimes we are invited to post those goals online and we tell people what we want to do . This is just an observation. As i think we are all related by some of the same emotions and habits we are still individuals and as such are also ruled by different individuals, experiences ,circumstances...
It is important to keep yourself honest and not let others get you down but sometimes sharing is not always a good thing and is best done in a controlled fashion.
As for procrastination well that is an insidious habit indeed and one that poses a challenge for sure.Being honest about what you want and what you are willing to do to get it is in my opinion the most important aspect at the beginning or any endeavour .Your honesty with yourself is key regardless of how many goals you have posted ,told people about ........
Anyhoo happy new year to all sorry to digress ,i suppose i just needed to get a few things out !
Cheers everyone !
Johnny
Nice post, Kyle. I feel that New Year's resolutions were made to be broken, err, not followed. That's why I don't make them no more. I feel that it's best to have a new day's resolution that's being followed every day. At least that's more doable as composed to having a New Year's resolution which seems be more of a daunting task. Anyhow, thanks for posting this and happy new year to you too.
Armand
Dude! Thanks for this. I needed to work on some things that are not business related, but I've been putting them off for YEARS! that involves other people. People that I needed to get in touch with. Tell them how much I cared about them. Crap! Was waiting for the Perfect time. I guess I see now. That perfect time. Will never come. Man. How such thoughts can STEAL time. Thanks dude. This one's an important post. And I'll be keeping it close.
The perfect time is now. Don't wait, don't put it off, take action today. Another thing too is to treat this like a business, not just something to do casually.
Write down a plan of action, things that you want to do daily to reach the goals you've set out for yourself. I took a notepad with me on my recent vacation and did just that. I've outlines what I want to do for the next 3 months and what I need to do daily.
The action I want to take this month is to do more research in my niche to see what people are looking for or what they need help with as well as which products are selling well, post reviews of 2 fairly new products and promote them, and start taking the steps to create a weekly newsletter so I can start building an email list for email marketing.
Then the next month I'm going to focus very heavily on adding much more content on a consistent basis especially now that I'm armed with some great topics thanks to keyword research. I've also rejoined Amazon Associates and I'm going to start using them much more now for affiliate links and product promotion. I know that doing these things will lead to the success that I'm wanting to reach in my life.
Kyle you, hit the nail on the head. I learned the hard way last year as I mentioned before of "putting things off until tomorrow". Then tomorrow comes and you're tired and you put it off again the next day, then something else comes up and you put it off again until you continuously get into that habit and then suddenly, WHAM!
The new year hits and you wondered where all that time went and why you didn't reach your goals or in my case, I got too comfortable, kept putting things off and got bad news at the end of the year regarding my day job. VERY HARD lesson I'm going through right now because of my lack of action. Feelings of frustration, anger, sadness, and regret because I didn't take the action consistently that I should've and now I find myself in a very difficult situation that could've been lessened had I continuously taken action.
Listen to what Kyle says folks he speaks the absolute truth and you can learn from what I said in my situation because in-action can lead to things you don't want especially if you're relying on a day job to pay the bills while you're trying to get your online business off the ground and where you want to be financially.
The most important thing here is to TAKE ACTION! Do it when you feel like you'd rather watch TV instead. Stay up an hour longer or get up earlier to take action on your site or going through the training. Just DO IT as they say and it will it pay off in the long run.
Another key is always looking forward and to what you can accomplish versus dwelling on the things from the past.
You can reset at any time you want, start fresh with every new day and of course, you got the idea of action down.
Take action with consistency and persistency and you are going to have a bright future ahead of you Brian! :)
I have to agree, Kyle.
I tried resolution after resolution each new year. They never worked.
Now, I just have to build a habit. Since WA, I have built a habit of ignoring a lot of games and social-media. Now, I only access FB just for posting my articles or related to my websites.
A good habit is hard to develop. I am so thrill about this 2017.
A good habit is just the matter of doing something with consistency, and something that is a positive in respect to your business.
It sounds like you have shed a lot of the bad habits Arief and I wish you a bright 2017 ahead. :)
Awesome Kyle!
I'll get started tomorrow people & tomorrow never arrives!
Get started today and learn as you grow!
Thank you for always sharing & caring as WA has improved so much in the 19 months that I have been a part of this wonderful community!
I am excited now for 2017 and beyond as I know that there are more improvements on the way.
Thank You Kyle, Carson and the entire WA community for all that you do,
Tony
We got a lot of exciting stuff in store in the year ahead Tony and you can expect a lot from us in the next 12 months to add to your experience in the last 19! :)
Wishing you a brilliant 2017 ahead!
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Yep, agree with all that Kyle gave up reso's many years ago!
I do review my goals (1 year, 5 and 10 year plans) and check on my progress at the beginning of the year as I do in the middle of each year, just because it is a fixed time and 6 months is a good measurable time during which many things can be achieved.
That is what I recommend members to focus on ....just half a day....4 hours not very long in a 4000 hour year!