Kim Martin

There is just something so magical about the New Year. I mean, who doesn’t like a fresh start or a clean slate, right? Simply having a brand new year ahead of you is enough motivation to get your wheels turning about all of the things you still want to accomplish. It’s why so many people set lots of great goals at this time of year.  The term we all know so well for these goals is “New Year Resolutions”. Lately, it seems, New Year Resolutions have gotten a bad rap. So much so, many people have declared they aren’t going to even make them anymore. This is a terrifying thought to me, although, I can understand why it’s happening.  I believe if we can see New Year Resolutions for what they are, and take the right actions, we would be more excited to continue our tradition of setting them.

What are New Year’s Resolutions? They are simply our goals. The difference between New Year’s Resolutions, and goals we make at other times of the year, is the excitement, magic, and the motivation behind them, and so they tend to be BIGGER and BOLDER goals. With all of these emotions running high, we start to dream (somewhere along the last year, we lost that). We start to think about our goals and dreams, (we lost that along the previous year too), and because we have this big clean slate ahead of us, we are motivated, and begin to believe again in our ability to be successful in achieving our goals no matter how big they are!  So, the cycle begins, and we make our New Year’s Resolution, or in other words, our future year goal(s).

New Year’s Resolutions are AWESOME! These are your personal goals and things you are dreaming about accomplishing. New Year Resolutions are usually BIG and BOLD. The New Year, is our clean slate, our do over, our fresh start, our new day…It is the perfect time to set your goals! This is why it terrifies me to think you could be starting to decide not to bother yourselves with them anymore, although, as I said earlier, I can understand, and here’s why:

Year after year, you set your goals (New Year’s Resolutions). You start off so excited (remember it’s a magical time of year and it motivates us), and you begin the New Year ready to win! You DECIDE what your goals are, and write them down. You take the first step and DECLARE to your family, or a close friend or two what they are. You are beyond excited about them, you are confident that you will be successful this time, and you’ve taken the first steps necessary to begin the long journey of achieving success. You are on the right track, and it starts off so well, just like last year, and the year before that.

Now, fast forward just a few weeks into the New Year. The newness and excitement of the clean slate is starting to wear off (yes, it happens that fast), the magic is swiftly fading away, and life happens. Your car won’t start, your heat stops working, a family member or friend needs you, your spouse or partner isn’t supportive of your new big goals, work is crazy and there is talk you may be laid off, it’s freezing outside (remember it’s still January), and nothing is going how you thought it would just a couple short weeks earlier. The negative talk starts to creep in, and you start to say things to yourself like, “I am such a looser, why did I think this goal was possible, it’s not even that important really, it’s not meant to be, and why did I even make a dumb New Year’s Resolution anyway?” Sound familiar?

Now, fast forward another year and you get to the New Year AGAIN, which should be exciting, magical, a clean slate, and a time to set new BIG and BOLD goals, and what do you see and hear? Yes, all of the negative talk about New Year Resolutions and how nobody is ever successful with them anyway. So, potentially you cave and give up on making them too. The truth is failure is no fun! When we experience one failure after another, it is easy to just give up on our goals and dreams all together. We lose heart that we are capable of being successful. Whether it’s about our personal goals like our health and our family, our spiritual goals, or our business and career goals, it is easy to just give up.

Statistics today show that only 62% of us are setting our New Year goals (making New Year Resolutions), and out the 62% who do still make them, only 8% of us are successful. This is a staggering low number, and ultimately why I believe people (maybe even you) are giving up on believing in the idea of New Year Resolutions all together. It is also the reason why I can understand the bad rap about New Year Resolutions, but it still terrifies me and makes me sad to think so many of us are throwing in the towel on our BIG and BOLD goals. Remember, the difference between goals we may make or set during the year, and our New Year goals tends to be how BIG and BOLD they are.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with dreaming BIG and BOLD! In fact, there are way too many of us not dreaming BIG and BOLD enough. The reason is failure. How can we continue to keep dreaming BIG and BOLD when 92% of us are failing. That is depressing, and so we just don’t do it.

I have GREAT news! I know why most of us aren’t successful.  We don’t take the right action. We decide what our goals are, we declare them, but that’s usually as far as we get. We don’t continue to go through the rest of the steps necessary to ensure our success. We don’t envision our future selves successful. When life’s obstacles knock us down, we haven’t cultivated the right mindset. We haven’t incorporated the right resources or influences, and our discipline is weak because we haven’t practiced it, and so we don’t excel in our end result. The great news is that it’s not the fact that New Year Resolutions don’t work, it’s that we don’t take the right action and set ourselves up for success. New Year Resolutions are not the problem. In fact, they are our BIGGEST and BOLDEST dreams. The problem is that we’ve given up on dreaming BIG and BOLD because we haven’t experienced success.

I want to encourage you to keep on setting your New Year goals (resolutions). I also want to encourage you to get connected with our organization, I’ve Decided, so that you can have everything you need in order to be successful with your BIG and BOLD dreams. You will learn how to live a life decided by using the DECIDE method, and not only get motivated, but stay motivated by constantly gaining new information and revelations.  We will connect you to the resources you need and to people who care. I’ve Decided is your platform for success and transformation!

Please visit us at www.ivedecided.org or contact me at kim@ivedecided.org to learn more about our Motivational Conferences and all of our local events designed for you!