The data simply doesn’t lie. Every year, on or about January 1st, millions upon millions of people across the globe make resolutions for the start of the New Year. By February, nearly 85% of these resolutions have been abandoned. As the year progresses, these numbers rise and the percentage of people reporting that they have kept and built upon their resolutions can be counted on one hand.

The most profound reasons people often fail to follow-through on resolutions can be boiled down into two specific categories. Here’s the first:

(1)The MOTIVATION for the resolution simply isn’t strong enough to conquer the price that must be paid to achieve success. In short, the personal calculus when considering the costs and benefits fails to produce consistent action or discipline. Obviously, the process of selecting your target resolution(s) must be well thought out to produce the long-term discipline needed to meet your goals. Ask yourself these questions: Of the goals I have considered, what one goal is the most valuable and meaningful to me? Why? Want would achieving this goal require of me? Is my MOTIVATION significant enough to power through the effort required to achieve my goal?

These questions require a brutal sense of honesty and will test your capacity to plan and estimate. But, the exercise is well worth the effort. Starts planning for your success now, and thoughtfully consider your goals. I prefer to make a list of “nice to have” and “must have” goals to narrow my thinking and focus on a worthy target. Next week, I’ll cover the second reason most resolutions fail, and we’ll be on target and en route to our resolutions before the holiday season ends. You got this!

CJ Kirk

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