Are you an eight-percenter?
What’s your success rate regarding your New Year’s resolutions? According to Statistic Brain Research Institute (statisticbrain.com) only 8% of people who make New Years resolutions stick to them. That’s a horrible success rate. Even a baseball hitter has success at three or four times that rate. This surprises me because batters have skilled pitchers actively trying to foil them. We make New Year’s resolutions, publicly assert our goal and still succeed only 8% of the time.
Why might this be the case? Are people not serious about their resolutions? That may be part of it. I would venture a guess that much of the problem is not properly thinking through a resolution before setting out to make it a reality. It’s a common pitfall.
We don’t do it only around the New Year. We often launch into things without thinking them through, without a plan and without a clear reason. Sometimes we get lucky and it works out…usually, for inconsequential things. This approach is bad policy all around and it goes against the spirit of a resolution.
Three Weeks
When I worked at a fitness club in Colorado, every January 1st, membership would swell with those gung ho and resolved to get in shape and lose weight. Until the third week of January every machine would be in constant use. Then for one week we would see a rapid decline in gym attendance. By February it was business as usual.
The tendency to falter after three weeks isn’t uncommon. It seems to happen frequently when we start something new. It doesn’t need to be this way. There is a simple way turbo-charge your chances of success with a resolution.
The Answer
Define the stakes. Are they high enough to motivate you through the dark days? Know why failure is not an option. Not only will identifying the stakes involved help you remain steadfast on the path to getting what you desire, the process will let you know when something is really a resolution and when it is just a nice idea.
On the flip side, know what benefits you will reap from your victory. Feel them, internalize them and live them in your dreams until you experience them in real life.
The Questions
Ask yourself:
1. What is at stake if I fail? What bad stuff will happen if I give up? Why won’t I be able to look at myself in the mirror if I give up along the way?
2. What is to gain when I succeed? What will be amazing? How will life be sweeter?
Your answers will reveal a lot about the likelihood of you following through. If you can’t come up with compelling reasons why you don’t want to fail and why you must succeed, you won’t have ample resolve when the doubts and difficulties storm in. And, they will storm in at some point. Doubt, difficulty and lack of compelling reasons to persevere will lead to breaking your New Year’s resolution sooner rather than later, probably within three weeks.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t do things with low stakes? Of course not, what I am saying is that resolutions, by definition, need resolve. And, resolve is “to decide firmly on a course of action.” When the stakes are high, so will be your resolve.
When the stakes aren’t identified and substantial, the odds are not in our favor.
There must be a difference between things that we would, simply, like to do and things we resolve to do. Clearly assess which is which and treat it accordingly.
Action
Once you have pondered the stakes and found them compelling enough to label your endeavor a resolution, go for it with everything you have. Let the high stakes push, pull and drag you to the finish line. You are no longer a person with only an 8% chance of success. You are one of the rare few who have an excellent chance of dreaming big and living the dream in real life.
May your resolutions resolve successfully in 2016 and beyond.
What’s your success rate regarding your New Year’s resolutions? According to Statistic Brain Research Institute (statisticbrain.com) only 8% of people who make New Years resolutions stick to them. That’s a horrible success rate. Even a baseball hitter has success at three or four times that rate. This surprises me because batters have skilled pitchers actively trying to foil them. We make New Year’s resolutions, publicly assert our goal and still succeed only 8% of the time.
Why might this be the case? Are people not serious about their resolutions? That may be part of it. I would venture a guess that much of the problem is not properly thinking through a resolution before setting out to make it a reality. It’s a common pitfall.
We don’t do it only around the New Year. We often launch into things without thinking them through, without a plan and without a clear reason. Sometimes we get lucky and it works out…usually, for inconsequential things. This approach is bad policy all around and it goes against the spirit of a resolution.
Three Weeks
When I worked at a fitness club in Colorado, every January 1st, membership would swell with those gung ho and resolved to get in shape and lose weight. Until the third week of January every machine would be in constant use. Then for one week we would see a rapid decline in gym attendance. By February it was business as usual.
The tendency to falter after three weeks isn’t uncommon. It seems to happen frequently when we start something new. It doesn’t need to be this way. There is a simple way turbo-charge your chances of success with a resolution.
The Answer
Define the stakes. Are they high enough to motivate you through the dark days? Know why failure is not an option. Not only will identifying the stakes involved help you remain steadfast on the path to getting what you desire, the process will let you know when something is really a resolution and when it is just a nice idea.
On the flip side, know what benefits you will reap from your victory. Feel them, internalize them and live them in your dreams until you experience them in real life.
The Questions
Ask yourself:
1. What is at stake if I fail? What bad stuff will happen if I give up? Why won’t I be able to look at myself in the mirror if I give up along the way?
2. What is to gain when I succeed? What will be amazing? How will life be sweeter?
Your answers will reveal a lot about the likelihood of you following through. If you can’t come up with compelling reasons why you don’t want to fail and why you must succeed, you won’t have ample resolve when the doubts and difficulties storm in. And, they will storm in at some point. Doubt, difficulty and lack of compelling reasons to persevere will lead to breaking your New Year’s resolution sooner rather than later, probably within three weeks.
Does this mean that you shouldn’t do things with low stakes? Of course not, what I am saying is that resolutions, by definition, need resolve. And, resolve is “to decide firmly on a course of action.” When the stakes are high, so will be your resolve.
When the stakes aren’t identified and substantial, the odds are not in our favor.
There must be a difference between things that we would, simply, like to do and things we resolve to do. Clearly assess which is which and treat it accordingly.
Action
Once you have pondered the stakes and found them compelling enough to label your endeavor a resolution, go for it with everything you have. Let the high stakes push, pull and drag you to the finish line. You are no longer a person with only an 8% chance of success. You are one of the rare few who have an excellent chance of dreaming big and living the dream in real life.
May your resolutions resolve successfully in 2016 and beyond.
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