Sticky Resolutions: How to Make Your New Year’s Resolution STICK

Congratulations! You’re considering a Resolution for 2020. We think you can absolutely make your resolutions stick. In this article, we will explore three enhancements to help you keep your resolutions today, in 2020, and beyond. For the quickest answer for most of us, skip to the section entitled Do It Yourself?
Make Your Goals SMART.
Here’s how you make your 2020 Resolutions SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Based.
Specific.
Develop your plan for achieving your goal by asking lots of questions and refining your goal. For example, instead of declaring that you’ll finally stop snacking, hone your resolution by asking questions: what’s your why? how will you stop? who can you count on for support? when are you most likely to want a snack? And, importantly, how will you overcome obstacles?
Measurable
It is critical to have a metric to know that you are making progress and that you have achieved your goal. How do you want to measure your health? – by pounds, a tape measure, body mass index, etc.? There are even ways to measure relationship goals! So, find a way to quantify your efforts.
Attainable
A goal should be achievable/attainable. Whether your goal is for a financial, career-based, health/well-being or centered around a relationship objective, research the standards and see if it’s doable. Without this confirmation, your initial goal may be a tall order to achieve, potentially causing disappointment or, ever worse, a waste of energy.
Realistic
Considering other activities in your life, how likely will you be able to fold these new, specific tasks into your life. What else are you looking to attain in 2020 and how does this goal fit in to your other objectives?
Time-Based
Convert your resolution into monthly and then weekly milestones. Assign the tasks within your goal to times in your calendar.
The SMART goals will provide clarity, structure, and the big why to persevere, but we are missing a huge element – energy.
Energy Map Your SMART- Goal.
Strategic energy mapping is a term to focus you on the ebbs and flows of your energy on a typical day (Stanford Professors Bill Burnett and Dale Evans). When do you naturally have your highest energy each day? Can you harness that energy towards your new goal? By looking at the typical week for both the opportunity and the energy for a new habit, you are more likely to keep your resolution.
Consider which activities improve your energy flow. What’s your energy re-set: Is it playing a musical instrument, a brisk walk, connecting with a friend, looking at art or wildlife? Explore and apply. Use an energy re-set to fuel the new habit and build progress and achievement of your resolution.
Energy mapping your day, week, and month can transform your calendar to what you long to do personally while managing the obligations that keep your life running. As a result your SMART tasks can find their way into your calendar with a higher likelihood of getting done. And with SMART goals and Energy Mapping you are better equipped to NOT be one of the 80% who find their resolutions slipping by February (US News & World Report, December 5, 2018).
Do it Yourself?
Some people thrive by working independently, but most achieve their goals more easily and quickly by working with an impartial, experienced coach. (C. Sime. “How Does Coaching Actually Help Leaders.” Forbes, March 28, 2019). The Forbes article cites a recent study that found individual coaching to be superior in goal attainment as compared to a group training or a control group with no intervention.
Anecdotally, we’ve seen even our busiest clients stay on track and accomplish their goals because of regular coaching meetings. For example, one of my clients is a CEO who made time to meet even in her busiest season. She said,“When I hear you re-state some of the ideas, I can decide which ones to eliminate and which ones to pursue. It frees up my mind to do other things.” The investment of time with her coach generates the clarity to make other decisions and yields better results, sooner.
Clarity. Balance. Decisiveness. Happiness. These are some of the many ways our clients describe their lives as a result of working with us. CWC Coaching and Therapy is client driven, empathetic, and highly attentive. Our full suite of research-based services support clients through life coaching, therapy, and relationships.
If you’d like to explore how we can support your new year, book your complimentary, private, 20-minute consultation with us today.
BIO: Genie Sockel is a Life Coach at CWC Coaching and Therapy. She has a J.D. from Georgetown Law and a B.A. in Psychology from Yale. Genie enjoys seeing her clients grow and in her personal life she enjoys singing and songwriting and watching their Border Terrier, Seamus, swim at the neighborhood nature preserve.

At CWC Coaching, our team consists of licensed therapists, life coaches, and counselors. We assist clients with self-improvement, career development, negative self-talk, psychological pain, self-sabotaging behavior, past hurts and finding your purpose. If you are ready to increase your self-awareness and happiness, breakthrough limiting behavior and understand your purpose in life, we’d love to help guide you on this journey.