That “New Year, New You” saying gets us every time, doesn’t it?
We make New Year resolutions, set goals, and make plans to do bigger and better things in the new year.
Somewhere along the way, we end up struggling. Our progress slows down, and we quit before reaching success.
We chalk it up to life, work, family, and other things. Once we drop the ball, we rarely attempt to pick it back up again. Even if we do, it’s never with the same enthusiasm.
So what are we to do?
How can we make sure we don’t drop the ball? And if we do, how can we pick it up and start again with the same determination as before?
Well, here are a couple ideas.
Don’t Break the Chain
Let me tell you a quick story about the time Brad Isaac ran into Jerry Seinfeld at a comedy club. He couldn’t wait to ask him for advice.
He asked if Seinfeld had any tips to help the young comic improve. Here’s how Isaac describes Seinfeld’s response:
He said, the way to be a better comic was to create better jokes and the way to create better jokes was to write every day.
He told me to get a big wall calendar that has a whole year on one page and hang it on a prominent wall. The next step was to get a big red magic marker. He said for each day that I do my task of writing; I get to put a big red X over that day.
After a few days, you’ll have a chain. Just keep at it and the chain will grow longer every day. You’ll like seeing that chain, especially when you get a few weeks under your belt. Your only job is to not break the chain.
Isaac credits Seinfeld for helping him become a more productive person and comedian. You can track your progress this year using this calendar.
How does this apply to you?
If you want to get better at a specific thing, the best way to get there is to practice it every day. Each day that you work toward your goal this year, make a note of it.
Place an “X” on a calendar or use a productivity app, but find a way to keep visual track of your progress each day.
As that chain grows, do your best to keep the chain going.
That level of consistency and commitment to a task alone will cause you to be a different person. You’ll be someone who’s accomplished something that many people haven’t.
Wait… Let me guess what you’re thinking…
Isn’t breaking the chain inevitable? Won’t life get in the way at some point?
Well, that may be true and I’ll address that in a moment.
But, there are things we can do to stave off what we perceive to be an inevitable failure.
For more resources and tips for managing your social anxiety, visit my Social Anxiety Resources Page.
Make it Easy… Really Easy
For some of us, lofty goals that need a lot of work make us feel overwhelmed. Instead, simplify your goals.
For example, I want to read 20 books this year. For me, an average reader who still likes to binge-watch Netflix and Hulu, 20 books is an aggressive amount.
I set the same goal last year and only made it halfway. Last year, I thought I was making it easy on myself by setting the goal of reading 20 pages a day.
That didn’t work. I felt that I had to read my 20 pages in one sitting. That wasn’t my original plan when making this goal, but that’s what I felt I had to do. So, I kept falling behind or getting interrupted before reaching my 20 pages.
This year, I’m trying for 10 pages in the morning and 10 in the evening with no pressure to do it all in one sitting.
I made my simple reading plan even easier. So easy, that the only way I can fail, is if I don’t try at all.
Under-promise and Over-deliver
If you look at any dominant company, you’ll notice two distinct features about them. First, a lot of these companies make promises that seem to be well within their reach. Then, they deliver more than what they said they would.
For example, Facebook is working to help connect people all around the world. They’re striving to make social media more social. They also want to make your interactions on Facebook as real as possible.
That’s a steep promise. But it’s within the grasp of the world’s largest social media platform, right?
They’ve been at this for years, with over a billion people now using Facebook regularly.
But recently, they did something that unexpected. They created a way for users to record a video and stream it out to the world at the same time.
Facebook Live.
How’s that for over-delivering on making your social media interactions more real?
We can use this same concept in our own lives. By under-promising on our goals, we give ourselves the opportunity to over-deliver.
How do we do this?
Whatever goals we set, we make sure they are within our reach. They should still be a challenge, but reasonable to achieve. With our goal in place, we can set a secondary goal to surpass our original one.
I’m keeping this in mind with my reading goal this year.
Again, my goal is 20 books this year. But I’m hoping to over-deliver and read 25 books with a little extra effort.
Look at your own goals for 2017 and set some secondary goals and over-deliver this year.
Don’t just run toward your target, run through it!
What if You Break the Chain?
OK, I hear you. All that stuff sounds believable, and I know you’ll try your best this year. But what if you break the chain?
If that happens, you’re allowed to have your emotions about it.
You’re allowed to be mad or upset. You can be angry, disappointed, or any other emotion you might have at that moment… for about 5 minutes.
Then forgive yourself, learn from it, and start back the next day.
The strategy of never breaking the chain isn’t about the outcomes. It’s not about seeing the finished product.
It’s about consistency.
This strategy helps you build a habit of showing up to work on something that’s important to you every day. The point isn’t the outcome, let that be a byproduct of your work.
The point is to do the work.
Life happens. Things get in the way. We all get derailed at some point.
But it’s our job to right the ship, get back on course, and keep going.
That’s true strength. That’s true courage.
If life knocks you down to the mat, you get back up and start going again. You owe it to yourself to keep going. You owe it to yourself to pursue your dreams and get better and stronger every day.
How to Keep Going
When I started learning about blogging, I found the work of Jon Morrow.
In the blogging world, Jon Morrow is by far one of the greatest bloggers of all time. He has worked tirelessly to build some of the most popular blogs ever. But that’s not what drew me to him.
It wasn’t his ability to paint a picture with his words or to explain things with amazing detail.
It was his story.
Jon has a neuromuscular disorder called Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It’s a form of Muscular dystrophy that severely affects children.
Most of the children who have this disease don’t survive for long, usually just a few years.
For Jon, who is now 34 years old and the oldest living person with his disease, this means he can’t move his arms or legs. Except for the ability to move his eyes and lips, he is paralyzed.
But Jon had a mother who would do anything to help him survive.
There were nights when Jon’s mom would have to beat on his back and chest every two hours just to help him cough. She would do this for days on end. This brutal assault on his fragile body caused him to suffer from fractured ribs.
Just imagine being unable to move. Picture being unable to help yourself. Imagine crying and suffering from the pain that your mother has to inflict on you, just so you can live.
Don’t Give Up!
At one point, when Jon was struggling to breathe, his mother brought him a framed quote. The quote explained everything that his mother wanted Jon to know.
She placed the plaque on the table beside Jon and told him to read it aloud.
He couldn’t muster the strength.
“Whisper them,” she said, and Jon did.
He whispered them that night and every night afterward. He thought about the words when he was in the hospital.
Jon thought about them as he grew older and learned to navigate school from his wheelchair.
He recited them as he learned to use a computer and write articles using dictation software and a lip operated computer mouse.
Today, he’s a sought-after writer and teacher. He travels the world and changes the lives of millions of people.
How did he do it?
Sure, he had the help of his mother, doctors, and aides. Sure, he had people give him a chance when nobody else would.
What helped Jon become so successful were the words on the plaque that his mother bought him.
It was a short quote from Winston Churchill. Just 5 words in total.
“Never Never Never Give Up!”
Overcome your fear of public speaking. Conquer talking to strangers, meeting new people, and starting a deeper relationship.
Travel the world, start your business, write your book, and tell your story. Become the person you’ve always wanted to be.
Just take the advice that helped Jon and remember it every day.
Never Never Never Give Up!
This post was proofread by Grammarly and ProWritingAid.
Take Action Today
Track your progress this year using this calendar. This full-year wall calendar will provide you with the visual positive feedback loop you need to accomplish your goals each day. Use these markers to mark off your consecutive days of action.