Keeping the Resolution Challenge [Day 2]

It’s still the first real week back after the holidays, so you’re still wound up and ready to go. But, something’s giving in the background. I’ve seen it happening already here in Indianapolis while the numbers in the gym plummeted after our first big snow: It’s called life. Something happened, and people are already starting to cave to the pitfalls that come up and get in their way. Day 1 of the challenge was designed to prioritise your desires so you can really focus on what’s going to help you the most now. Not 10 years from now, but right now. This year or sooner. Now, Day 2 of the challenge is designed to help you find that motivation to keep you going through the long haul until the old habits are broken and new ones are set. Ready?

Grab your Day 1 challenge goal and reasons and get ready to get creative.

Saying you’re going to do something and even giving yourself great motivation that appeals to both logic and emotion will only get you so far. Now, you need to solidify all that wishful thinking into productive thinking. That’s right, you’re going to make it real.

Some people do vision boards they hang on the wall. Others tell their friends and family their goals. Still, others put post it notes all over the place to remind them. All of these methods work — until they don’t any more. Every single roommate I’ve had, as well as myself, have noted that we can put these things up on the wall, decorate white boards, and plaster the walls with sticky notes. It works for about a week, then it fades from our memory and we don’t see it any more. I seriously watched my roommate pull a bowl out of cabinet every morning, but to do so he had to remove a sticky note that said, “Be mindful”. After the first week he moved it to the bottom of the cabinet where he wouldn’t have to move it, then ignored it for the rest of its sad life until it fluttered to the counter top a few months later.

So, what are you going to do to prevent this?

You’re going to make it an actionable.

I have found that different things motivate and trigger different people. I, for instance, like to keep it simple. I put a post it note of my goal, reason, and actions on my monitor with sticky notes. Nothing fancy because I tend to ignore fancy most of the time. A Sarah G., an independent inventor here at Insanitek, found she stuck to goals best with a gorgeous vision board that kept her inspired and served as a wall decoration and night-light.

So, choose a method of reminder or a combination of them. Here are some ideas:

Vision board
Stick notes
An app designed for your purpose
A notebook
A journal
Telling friends and family
Finding an accountability partner
Finding a mentor
Putting it on every page of your day planner
Keeping a Pinterest board
Mindmapping

Really, the choices are limitless on how you prep yourself to remember and stay motivated. The key is to choose at least a visual memory technique that excites you and you’ll see every day.

Choose a method or two, then get to work.

You are going to write your primary goal down, followed by all the reasons you want this. Put the goal and reasons in the same area so you can easily see them attached to one another at any given time. This alone helps you connect the pathos and ethos to the goal and help you stay motivated longer. Leave plenty of room, because later we’re going to start adding your strategy to the whole plan to make it more than a promise.

Put this creation in a prominent place you will see every day. Sarah put hers by her bed where she reads at every morning when she gets up, I put mine on my monitor where I spend an astounding amount of time.

Now, instead of doing like my roommate used to do and ignoring it, you are going to say one word or phrase from your set up every day. If you have “be a better writer” as your goal, then you might have “so my work is more powerful” or “to get more grants”. Say one phrase every day. This could be the goal itself or one of the reasons why you chose this particular goal. Say it out loud. It might make people think you’re talking to yourself, but what you’re doing is reminding yourself with both a visual and an auditory clue of what’s important to you and why. It’s also letting other people around you know you’re serious and upping their support a lot.

Here’s your check list for today: