Why Resolutions Don't Work --The Power of Setting Goals

In the dictionary, “Resolution” is defined as: “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” While a “Goal”  is “the object of a person's ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” While both

are similar in the sense that they both are a plan or intent; sustainable change in your life). The reason for this resolution failure rate is because when you make a resolution, you tend to look at the “What” (What it is that you are doing or giving up) and not the “Why,” (The reason behind why you are doing what you are doing) and with goals you focus on the “What” and the “Why.” It makes all the difference when we have a reason for our behavior and decisions.
resolutions tend to be forgotten and forsaken much faster than goals do. In fact, according to a survey of 3,000 people by Richard Wiseman in 2007, of all resolutions, 88% end in failure. (This may be a discouraging figure, but if you read to the end of this post, you’ll find out why resolutions don’t work and what you can do to actually deliver some

Let me explain:

When you make a resolution it’s typically along the lines of something like, “I’m going to go to the gym 3-5 times a week this year” or, “I’m no longer going to eat junk food.” It’s not that there’s anything wrong with the desire to do these things, the problem is that resolutions typically tend to leave out the “why” –or the reason behind why we actually made the resolution in the first place! The problem then occurs when we face a moment of temptation to eat that chocolate-glazed donut or skip working out at the gym “just this once,” because we don’t have enough reason as to why we should or should not be doing those certain things in the first place.

Goals are different. With goal setting, you “begin with the end in mind.” Your focus is less on the immediate and more on the long-term. With goals, you’re reaching towards an end result and can see a bigger picture. You set the end goal, or the desired result, have a reason for wanting to achieve that result, and then take continuous action steps to work towards accomplishing that goal and seeing it become a reality. Rather than having a resolution of “I’m going to go to the gym every day,” goals give us the reason as to why we are putting in the time and the effort to do something like going to the gym—to achieve an end result, in this case, “Have our healthiest year ever.” Can you see the difference?

Another problem with resolutions is that once we fail to follow through with our resolution once, we tend to lose hope and drop the resolution completely and are left feeling like a resolution-making failure. With goals on the other hand, they are something we are consistently working towards making a reality, so if we mess up, there is less of a finality to it, and more of an “I’ll try again tomorrow” attitude. We are more determined to see our goals through because we can see the end destination.

It's also incredibly important to write out our goals on a daily basis. When we do so, we keep our goals fresh, and in the forefront of our minds, making it easy to plan the day according to engaging in activities that will help us accomplish those goals. When we write out our goals, we increase our chances of accomplishing them DRASTICALLY. We may make a resolution up in our mind, but when we write out a goal we are far more likely to take the action in seeing that goal through. It's important to have and set goals that are personally meaningful to us on a regular basis, because they

bring our lives passion, purpose, fulfillment, and a sense of productivity and accomplishment. A wise man once said, "Without goals, people perish." And it's true. We need goals, and we need vision in order to not just survive, but to thrive. The wisest and most successful people will tell you the utmost importance of setting goals and taking action towards them! Hellen Keller once said, "The only thing worse than being blind, is to have sight, but no vision." 

Unlike resolutions which often cause us to forget the end result we are working towards (and therefore are easier to give up on), goals allow us to “begin with the end in mind,” and we are much more likely to see things through. Goals inspire us to take action not because we have to, but because we want to. We have an inward sense of accomplishment when we achieve a goal, unlike trying to stick with a resolution that seems to have no end. Goals inspire a lifestyle transformation that provokes us to make the continual effort and investment to reach and accomplish them. Having that “why,” or reason for doing what you do, makes all the difference between successful and visible life-transformation, and another failed New-Years resolution.

I hope this post has inspired you to set some new goals this year,

and throughout the New Year of 2014, and I hope you feel motivated to dream big when setting your goals! Know that the sky is the limit when it comes to what you are capable of achieving! Set your goals high and you may just end up surprising yourself! ;-) 

I wish you all LOTS of love, peace, joy, and prosperity this upcoming year—and I wish you all the very best!

XO

Love,

Brigitte

“Shoot for the moon, even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” 

"Without vision, people perish."