Don’t Fail Before You Start

I read a startling statistic the other day that 43% of people who set New Year’s resolutions expect to fail them by February. What are we doing with this mindset? How can you possibly set a goal you don’t think you’ll achieve? Let alone not think you’ll fail by February. There's still eleven months of the year left. Even if you don’t start until February you can still achieve any goal you have for yourself.

I believe this time of year can be powerful, but as that statistic shows it can also be extremely challenging for others. They believe they should be setting goals to start the year, but deep down they don’t believe they will succeed. At that point they become a self-fulfilling prophecy and it only solidifies this belief. It’s easy to say you have to believe in yourself, and I would agree thinking you will fail is a recipe for disaster, but believing in yourself is easier said than done in some cases.

Instead, maybe set smaller goals to create a sense of achievement. Simply switching your mind to belief becomes easier after a couple of wins. The truth is that you need that belief if you’re going to hit larger goals, but you need some wins first if you’re going to attack larger goals. Find a way to win a few goals this January and start your larger resolutions in February. Perhaps changing the start date from January to February could be enough to flip the script for you. But you have to set up some wins in January to start the process.

Something that I do to make sure I’m getting daily wins is I define success. I set a standard of what I believe a win is for each day and that keeps me on task. It doesn’t have to be big wins either. It can be something as simple as I’m going to get up on my first alarm and not hit snooze. I’m going to go for a walk during lunch instead of sit in my office. I’m going to make dinner tonight instead of buying fast food. I’m going to send 1 more email than yesterday.

Set the bar low and crush it everyday. This will lead to you stacking wins and feeling good about what you’re doing. From there you can expand and make things harder. But only if you want to. Small daily wins is enough to build great success over time. 

The other thing I do is at the beginning of the year if I’m making changes that require additional work that I’m used to. I create a daily task list, and a tracking calendar. The task list gives me direction on what I need to focus my attention on and the tracking calendar lets me see if I’m winning each day. Yesterday I had a perfect day. I have a percentage target of 85% win rate. I also have a rule that if I miss one day on a task I can’t miss it twice.

Seeing the tracking right in front of me makes not missing twice easier. Because we’re so drawn to our old habits, if we’re not tracking our new habits we will naturally refer back to our old ways. By seeing the miss right in front of me each day, I know I need to get back on track the next day. Don’t miss twice and before long you’ll create a new habit.

Stop looking at the big picture. Anyone can become overwhelmed by that. Pull your focus in close (at least for a while) and set daily actions and tasks. Then track your daily wins. Be sure that you consistently show up for your daily wins. Build successful habits and watch how your year turns into a series of wins. Shift the focus this year, become one of the few who find wins in their New Year goals.