Resolutions. A word that at any other time of the year doesn’t hold much power but coming up to the New Year it’s tossed around a lot as plans are made to be healthier in the coming year or to stop doing something because it’s bad for you. Nothing is wrong with this, it’s good to want to improve yourself or make progress on something. It’s the stigma, everyone knows it, most resolutions fail before February arrives and that is sad. I’m sure a few people stick to their goals and make it through, but it is common knowledge that most don’t.
It strikes me as ironic that most people fail to achieve their New Year’s resolutions because the word resolutions literally means a firm decision to do or not do something. Regardless these resolutions have failed for a reason. That reason could be making the goal too vague and being unable to measure it so you don’t know if you’ve achieved it or not, something like praying more. Or perhaps the motivation has fizzled out and because of a lack of discipline to keep it going the momentum has been lost and you don’t see the point in trying again until next year when it will inevitably happen again.
Sometimes we forget the reasons we made certain resolutions or didn’t have a reason to begin with so of course we weren’t motivated or had a reason to stay disciplined and in that scenario were doomed to fail. It’s depressing and demotivating and often by the time February rolls around we wonder why we bother to try each year if we’re inevitably going to fail.
There are a few problems here. The first is not creating measurable goals, the second is a lack of discipline or self-control leading to the third which is a lack of reason behind the goal. Lastly, a poor mindset.
Now if the goals had been measurable there was still a potential for success but when that motivation failed because of a poor mindset so did the chance of achieving the goal. That’s what needs to change first. The mindset.
Everything is about mindset, the time you wake up or go to bed, the kind of hobbies you have, it’s all connected. If you’re determined to wake up early or go to bed on time you’re going to make it happen. If you don’t want to do it then no matter how hard you try there will come a point where you give up. This is why mindset is important. If you have a fixed mindset nothing will change but with a growth mindset, you believe that with time and effort, you can change, and it will happen eventually.
So we need to embrace a growth mindset and there’s no better time to start than the New Year which is all about hope and change and we need to channel that into a growth mindset. If you believe you can change you’re off to a great start.
Embracing a growth mindset is not easy but with the consistent practice of the following nine steps you will get there.
Recognise what your mindset is.
Do you believe in education and development? If you do it’s a good sign of a growth mindset. People with fixed mindsets tend to believe that they are only skilled to a certain level and can’t go beyond that even with learning and development.
Pay attention to your thoughts and self-talk.
Do you often talk down on yourself or do you encourage yourself to keep going because perfection isn’t an ideal goal? Does your mind often wander to the more pessimistic side of things rather than the optimistic?
The thoughts we think to ourselves and the words we speak to ourselves hold a lot of power over our minds. When we think negatively we impact our mental health negatively, but if we think positively something like ‘Yes! I can overcome this!’ it has a better impact and reframing our thoughts like this leads them to coming true. Limiting thoughts like we can’t do something or not wanted somewhere often hold us back and usually reveal hidden fear within us that we need to learn to overcome because a life held back by fear and limitations is not much of a life at all.
Embrace challenges.
Instead of turning down opportunities to grow, take the challenge and learn to enjoy the journey rather than focusing on the outcome because in most cases the journey or the process has a much more significant impact.
Celebrate your efforts.
For every step towards success even if it’s a failure or a setback do something to celebrate it. Not only will doing so help you recognise that progress is not linear but will also motivate you to learn from that experience and try again.
Develop a love of learning.
Educate yourself on things you are passionate about or interested in to help you cultivate a love of learning and let yourself be open to absorbing new information. Be open to feedback and criticism so you can learn your strengths and weaknesses and know what you need to improve on.
Surround yourself with friends who will help you grow.
The people you surround yourself with have an impact on what kind of person you’re going to be like. If you surround yourself with people who encourage and inspire you to grow that’s exactly what you’ll do. But if you surround yourself with people who talk down on you all the time you’ll never get the courage to do the things you love for fear of their judgement.
Practice resilience.
Don’t let failures or setbacks keep you from trying again let them strengthen you and motivate you to try again with the knowledge that you’ll do better this time because you have a better foundation to build upon.
Set goals.
This one might seem obvious but one of the best ways to have a growth mindset is to set goals. By creating a list of the goals you want to achieve you’ll be able to track your progress and have the satisfaction of crossing it off once you’ve achieved it. Setting goals also helps you to continually improve because as you finish one goal you can start the following one to grow more. The first goal for example could be to start going out for a 30-minute walk every day regardless of the weather unless it’s life-threatening and the second goal could be to walk at least an hour every day.
Stay positive.
This is one of the most important ones – you have to try and stay positive. Focus on the good things, on your strengths and achievements, on what you can learn from your setbacks rather than wallowing in the feeling of failure. Focus on what you can change and let it drive you. Remind yourself of the reasons why you want to change and avoid comparing yourself to others because everyone has a different journey. Most of all believe you can do it, have faith in your ability to achieve your goals because it will happen one day.
I hope these nine steps will help you to form a growth mindset. But just because you’re working on it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t stop working towards achieving your goals.
Achieving your Goals
When you’re planning your resolutions for the New Year make sure they are S.M.A.R.T.
Specific – don’t make your goals too vague. If your goal is to exercise more be more specific, how many days a week are you going to exercise and at what time?
Measurable – How are you going to track your goal? Can you use a habit tracker app, or will you need a notebook to write down numbers?
Achievable – Don’t dive right in and try to climb a mountain when you haven’t been for a walk longer than an hour. Start with small, manageable chunks and build up to where you want to be.
Relevant – Does it meet any of the outcomes you are trying to achieve? Is it reasonable?
Time – Set a deadline for when you want to achieve this goal and when that date comes you can evaluate your progress and move on to the next stage of the goal or consider what went wrong and try again.
When use create your goals using S.M.A.R.T. you are more likely to achieve them. I hope this post has been helpful and will lead you to achieving all your resolutions in the New Year.
Wholeheartedly Faithul 
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