How to make and keep your Resolutions

Hi, I'm Charlie Hugh-Jones, creator and founder of Living On Purpose, unlocking the power of inspiration, imagination, and innovation to live a richer, more fulfilled, and more abundant life. Welcome to this video. I help people who recognize that they want something to change in their life make powerful decisions and then follow through on them so that they experience more clarity and focus, more energy, greater contentment, and often financial freedom. In this video, you're going to learn how to make and then keep your New Year's resolutions by using 7 steps to ensure your greatest success going into 2017. So, okay, the year is just clicking over from 2016 to 2017, and you want to make next year your best year ever. And you're reflecting on last year, gathering up your willpower, and getting ready to make some great resolutions. But if you're anything like most people, the ones you made last year were broken in a matter of weeks, if not days. You see, studies have shown that although nearly 50% of people make resolutions, only 8% of people actually achieve them. So why is this year going to be any different for you? Well, contrary to popular belief, resolutions are not about how much willpower you've got. Success in keeping resolutions depends more on your reasons, your routine, your habits, to who you make yourself accountable, and having a great system. A system to make good resolutions and a system to keep them. So I'm going to give you 7 steps that will empower and equip you to keep the resolutions you want to make for 2017. Step 1: Find your own why. Firstly, don't worry about all the things you should have as resolutions. Yes, friends and family might have an opinion about something you need to do or be: lose weight, quit smoking, eat more healthily, exercise more, spend less, save more, etc. But to be successful in making a change or adopting a new habit in 2017, what you want to change really needs to matter to you first. So stop thinking about those outside voices and instead aim your resolutions towards your goals. and the things that deeply motivate you. Weak guilt and empty resolutions aren't going to be enough to keep you going, but figuring out what is most important to you, what is most aligned with what you truly value, that will. You need to find your own why, your deepest reason for making a change. If you don't know what motivates you, what your core values are, or what your life purpose is about, How can you line yourself up with something that resonates with them to best motivate you? So you need to go and find out. And if you don't know how to figure any of those out by yourself, then why not go and check out one of my other videos? Then you can choose a resolution that will have the greatest impact on your happiness, health, and fulfillment, and you'll be more motivated to keep it. Step 2: Be specific, keep it simple, and be realistic. Many people make Getting into shape, their number one resolution. But what does that mean? Do you intend to lose a certain number of pounds? Reach a body fat percentage goal? Run 3 miles without rest? Bang out 10 pull-ups? The first step to successfully changing your behaviour, adopting a new habit around these things, is to clearly understand what it is. Be as specific as you can. Sometimes people find themselves aiming for a complete overhaul of their entire life, and this is a recipe recipe for disappointment and guilt. It's just too big a change in one go. Research shows that people who break their resolutions up into small manageable chunks typically have more success. Say your goal is to save money. Rather than making a resolution to save $1,000 this year, try to save $40 every other month. It's almost the same amount of money, and yet the goal is easier to keep. If you want to lose 50 pounds, aim to lose just 5 pounds per month. Again, it's more achievable, measurable in smaller steps, and has a higher likelihood of success. If you want to exercise more, don't resolve to run 5 times a week. Start with just once a week and see how you get on. This is perhaps the most essential ingredient for success. Be specific, keep it simple, and be real about what you can achieve. Step 3: Schedule, schedule, schedule. How often do you hear people say they can't find time to do something? Nobody finds time. We all get the same 24 hours per day. We don't even manage time, we manage our focus. Whether that's finalising a report, learning a new instrument, eating junk food, or going for a walk. To adopt a new habit, realise a goal, or keep a resolution, we need to give it our focus. And to give it our focus, we need to make space in our schedule for it. This isn't just about recognising that what we are choosing to do is important and then cramming it in, another to-do to add to our already overwhelming list. It's actually far more about what we choose to ignore in order to make space to get it done. It's planned neglect. It's what we choose to say no to. So make your new goals a priority and actually schedule them into your calendar with space either side. Just 15 minutes will do it. If you have a fitness goal, schedule time for your workouts plus space either side. If you want to declutter, schedule time to clean out your closet on your calendar with space either side. If you want to save money, put in a weekly budget review onto your Sunday afternoons. Think of these time blocks as important appointments with your boss, your doctor, your accountant, or even your lawyer that'll cost you if you break them, and learn to say no to anything that might clash with its scheduled time. Step 4: Give yourself a break. You are going to fail. You are gonna fall off the New Year's resolution wagon at some stage. But it's never the failure that counts. It's what you do the moment afterward that really matters. So plan what you're gonna do about it in advance and be kind to yourself about it. Don't turn relapses or temporary failures into total meltdowns or excuses for giving up. I might as well get dessert since I already ate those fries. My diet's blown anyway. Or perhaps you don't have a full hour to work out at the gym because of a work deadline, so just decide to make it the best 20 minutes you can. If you have a slight cold or minor injury, decide to just walk the track for a couple of miles rather than run it. And if you have a financial emergency and can't save your full $40, just save what you can. It's okay. Acknowledge what you have done rather than make a big deal out of what you haven't. Recognise the slip-up and recommit to the path. As the great Vince Lombardi said, it isn't whether you get knocked down, it's whether you get back up. Step 5: Remind yourself. Write your resolutions down. Write the reasons for them down. Write your inspiration down. Why not familiarise yourself with the benefits of the change you want to make in your life and write them down too? Now turn these into Post-it notes for the fridge, or your computer, or the mirror in your bedroom. Pictures are also a powerful reminder, so why not collect pictures of your slimmer self, of the hobby you want to take up, or the car you're saving for, or even the shocking credit card statement that you received that spurred you into action in the first place? Keep a scrapbook of these to look at every now and again. If your resolution will directly impact your partner, children, colleagues, or friends, put in pictures of them as well. Anything that will remind you of your initial motivation. And remember, technology is your friend here too. Use the reminders app on your phone or in your calendar app, not just for the schedule reminders, which you should definitely do, but also to remind you of the reasons Periodically throughout each week. Step 6, celebrate yourself. You deserve it. When making your resolutions, a vital feature should be the rewards and treats you'll give yourself at those all-important milestones along the way. Positive reinforcement is so powerful, but don't fall into the trap of putting your goal in danger. It's too easy for a dieter to say, I've been so good, I deserve that extra bit of dessert. Or a saver to throw caution to the wind with a new purchase. So spend some time right at the start being creative and planning the interim rewards you can get on your way to fulfilling your resolutions. This helps reframe your resolutions as fun journeys, and these rewards don't need to be linked to your goal, just something you enjoy. You might even want to canvass your friends and family for ideas of things you can do to share with them. Unless the reward is actually alone time away from the family or a hectic social life. Step 7: Harness your network. It's important to tell your network about your resolutions too. Studies have shown that people who explicitly state their goals are more likely to keep them. It's social accountability, and with social networks at our fingertips, it's possible to tell a whole bunch of people very quickly. But you do need to choose carefully who you tell. Don't bother enlisting support from those you know tend to be pessimistic or judgmental. You just don't need that negativity. Having emotional support from the important people in your network, those closest to you, can make or break your resolve. From giving you gentle nudges and reminders— kids are surprisingly good at this— to celebrating with you when you've reached a goal, sharing your goals with supportive family members and friends can And specifically let them know of ways they can help when the going gets tough, when you might fall off the wagon. Then they'll know the right things to say during those hard times. And that's it. 7 steps to ensure you are more successful in keeping your New Year's resolutions. But I recognise that sometimes you're so anxious or stressed out and have so many negative thoughts that we can't just follow something like these 7 steps. In order to keep our resolutions. So I'm going to be exploring ways to reduce stress and manage anxiety in another free video that I'm going to release soon. But in the meantime, I hope you got value from this video. If so, please like it. Make sure you subscribe to my YouTube channel. Feel free to share this video on your favourite social media platform and join me at charliehughjones.com where you can stay connected and sign up for exclusive email updates and get access to more content from my Living On Purpose programme. Thank you so much for watching, and I look forward to continuing this journey together in the next video. But until then, bye for now.