The beginning of the year is a good opportunity to reflect and decide what we would like to achieve, how we would like our life to be different, and what is working and not working. We make resolutions with the illusion that these wishes will come true. Unfortunately, there are studies that show that, after just one month, most people leave behind the goals that were set at the beginning of the year. By February, a large percentage of people already have given up their goals and only 7% of the population may reach their goals by the end of the year.

What is your case? Are you interested in being part of that 7%? What would need to happen so you can accomplish your goals?  What is required? My experience as a coach, working with people to achieve their goals, indicates that most clients have very good intentions but that they encounter obstacles that do not allow them to achieve what they want. What are your obstacles? The list of obstacles may be long but the most common are: lack of desire, time, money, discipline, patience, self-confidence, an/or support from others. Let´s explore them.

Motivation is very important to achieve what we want. Motivation means interest, it is the level of importance we give to reaching the goals. Is there urgency?  Sometimes, the goals are not as important as we believe for us to do the work required to achieve them. For example, if the goal is to get a new job, if we are not very motivated, we are probably not going to do what it takes to find another job: updating the resume, doing internet searches, interviews, etc. What is your case? Are you willing to do the necessary work? For example, if you want to lose weight, are you willing to go on a diet or go to the gym? We may get tempted with sweets or with foods that we know are not healthy and we find good excuses for not doing what we know we need to do. We may say, “Life is short, we have to enjoy it!.“  These ideas take away our power and motivation to achieve what we really want. Are we thinking about short-term pleasure or what we want in the long term? Are you one of those who focus on getting immediate pleasure or do you plan strategically? Remembering long-term wins can be helpful but sometimes is not enough. What are the beliefs that may be preventing you from achieving what you want?

Besides motivation, discipline is very important. If we want to speak or learn to write better in a different language, are we willing to do the work that requires such as taking classes, listening to radio or television in that language, etc.?   We may want to take classes to get new tools for our life and our work but we are putting it off for a better time that never comes.  There may be some enemies of learning in our way that we are not aware of: fear of not being able to learn, of failures, sometimes fear of success.

What is common in many of these challenges is that in order to achieve what we want, we need to have clarity on what we want and how we will achieve it.  We need a “why” and a “plan”.  We also need to have humility to ask for support if necessary.  In the book “Steps to success” I explain these steps that are required to achieve what we want.

Our self-esteem and beliefs in our ability to achieve what we want can also help us or be an obstacle to implementing our resolutions. How to make sure your resolutions become reality? Write on a sheet your goals, which you want to achieve, if you can put numbers in your goals better. For example you can put: get 5 new clients, take 3 classes of English, computing, etc. You can focus on goals in different areas of your life: health, work, love, relationships, free time, learning, etc. Putting dates helps assess progress. Also write what obstacles you may encounter and what you will do to skip those obstacles. Being able to prevent these obstacles is as important as defining the objectives. I wish you good luck with your plan and I hope you can make your goals a reality in 2020!