LIFE HACKS
7. Share your resolutions with others. It’s great to make a resolution for yourself and maybe even write it down, but if no one else knows about it, it’s easy to forget about or even ignore. And when you don’t achieve it, no one will notice or care. On the flip side, your counterparts who decided to tell someone about their goal, feel something different. Now that they’ve gone public with their goal, they feel a sense of obligation and accountability. Essentially, if you don’t follow through, they are going to let everyone down. 8. Automate where possible . A stitch in time saves nine. The good news is you probably have technology in your pocket that can help you follow through on your resolution - automation in the form of reminder apps. 9. Review your resolution regularly. Let’s face it, if you are not thinking about your resolution regularly, you are not going to follow through. Thus, a crucial part of realizing your goal is a regular review. At a minimum, this review should be monthly, but the more frequent the better. 10. If you fall off track, get back on quick. Rome was not built in a day. We’ve established it will take time for your resolution to become a reality and we know change is difficult. In fact, we’ve already established we should leave some room for mistakes and setbacks. Keep the following ideas in mind: • Skipping an intermediate task is not a complete failure • Missing a goal by 10% or even 80% is not a complete failure • Finishing a task late is not a complete failure • Amoment of weakness is meaningless in the grand scheme of things Once a mistake is made, own it and move on to the next thing. For example, if you skipped a study session, make it up tomorrow, and keep on moving. A few small mistakes shouldn’t spoil your resolution for the year! EC EC
friends is doable. • Relevant - Keep it relevant to your priorities and goals. See motivation section above! • Time-sensitive - Give yourself a time- frame in which to achieve a goal. Adeadline will instill some urgency and provide a time when you can celebrate your success. 5. Break up big goals into smaller goals. A lot of us tend to be over eager and grandiose when it comes to resolutions. We have the best of intentions and may accidentally take on a goal that is too big to achieve. Thus, it’s helpful to divide a big goal into smaller goals that are more achievable. Let’s say you are the leader of an alien race, and your resolution for 2021 is capturing the planet Earth. That is a huge goal!! You can’t just tell your intergalactic fleet of spaceships “take over planet Earth” and expect success. 6. Write down your goals. While it’s great to have goals, it is critical to document them in some way. Here are six reasons to write down your goals: 1. They are easy to forget. While that may seem silly, we are human, and it is human to be easily distracted and forgetful. 2. Writing down your resolutions helps you clarify what it is you want to achieve. It forces you to make decisions and be precise with your words. 3. Writing establishes intention, but action needs to be taken to achieve your resolution. Having a written account of your goals is a constant reminder to take action.
reason and willingness to take action. This is also known as motivation! 3. Limit resolutions to a manageable amount. A common mistake in resolution setting is having too many and spreading yourself too thin. We all want to learn 25 different languages, 15 new job skills, and eliminate 5 bad habits, but we are not superheroes. We only have so much attention span we can dedicate to self-improvement, so having too many resolutions is a great way not to achieve the many goals you have set out for yourself. Thus, you should make a short list of resolutions that you can manage in the upcoming year. Knowing that short list of priorities is the hard part. The key here is understanding how to prioritize. 4. Be specific. When it comes to setting resolutions, it’s easy to set bad goals that could lead to poor follow through. Fortunately, SMART goal setting framework can help you craft better goals. SMART goals are: • Specific - Articulate the resolution as clearly as possible. For example, quitting smoking is better than being healthy. While “being healthy” is great, the wording can be interpreted in many ways. • Measurable - Quantify your resolution if possible, i.e. I will lose 10% of my body weight. • Attainable - Choose a goal within the realm of possibility, but yet challenging. Making 100 friends this year would be amazing, but probably pretty hard to do. On the other, making 10 new
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EC Magazines | London-Tucson Edition 2022
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