New Months Accomplishment: This is A Way Better Alternative (and Solution) to New Years Resolutions
New\xa0Year's Resolutions don't "work" and a "New Month's Accomplishment" is what you need instead. Let me explain...\n\nNew Year's "resolutions" are silly for a few\xa0reasons...\n\n\n\nThey usually aren't S.M.A.R.T. goals (specific, measurable, achievable, results-oriented, and time-bound).\xa0SMART goals are pretty self explanatory but let me lay it out so there's no confusion: when you set out to do something, make sure that it's:\n\n \tsimple and clearly defined (specific)\n \tsomething tangible so\xa0it's 100% clear whether or not you accomplished that goal (measurable)\n \tenough of a stretch to move you out of your comfort zone, but not a shot at the moon (achievable)\n \tall about an outcome instead of an activity (results-oriented)\n \tin such a timeframe that it creates a sense of urgency for you (time-bound)\n\nI think when most people set\xa0a goal that they're serious about, they intuitively and automatically make it specific, measurable, and achievable.\xa0The two biggies here are "results-oriented" and "time-bound."\nIssue #1: You're Not Results-Oriented & Time-Bound\nPeople don't know WHY\xa0they're doing something, for example,\xa0someone tells me their big goal is to write a book for their business. Why? Just because. Someone told them to do it. There's no real plan beyond that, and their heart isn't in it (no emotional reason-why) so it's just not going to get done. (It probably won't get started.)\n\nThe average person makes a silly goal like, "I'm going to run 2 miles every morning all this year." That's bad. It's open-ended, and it's not time-bound. A better goal would be that you're\xa0going to walk\xa010 minutes every evening for one week, and that's it! Nothing recurring.\nIssue #2: Your Goals Are\xa0Too Big\nSecond problem, the goals are the wrong size. Usually too big. They're so big that\xa0you've\xa0subconsciously set yourself up for failure before you even started. You could have made\xa0your goal "write\xa0a 1/2 page blog post" but instead you said you'd write a 200-page book, including editing.\n\nCan you please be honest with yourself? If you don't want to do anything different this year to grow your business and change your life, I honestly think that's okay,\xa0but ONLY if you're honest with\xa0yourself about it. That leads us to...\nIssue #3: Belief & Honesty\nThird, there's no real belief behind these S.M.A.R.T. goals. Maybe you're going through the motions and setting these goals because you think you "should", and you feel "bad" for not having one. Maybe you feel excited when you\xa0plan it out. But that excitement wears out in a few days, doesn't it?\n\nThe problem with a New "Year" resolution is that you probably start thinking of a goal around December 1st (Thanksgiving is over and\xa0it's holiday time), decide on that goal around December 5th, and then give up on the goal completely by December 15th. A small portion of people make it until January 10th, and even less until February 1st.\n\n\nThe solution to your "belief" crisis is to gain a small victory so you can not only see what's possible, but you've also broken that vicious cycle of:\nfeel bad -> over-engineer a pie-in-the-sky solution -> give up on it -> feel bad again\n\nThe Answer: New Month's Accomplishment\nI have a better path for you and it's actually pretty simple:\n\n \tDon't wait until January 1st to do something different\n \tDon't have a huge year-long or recurring goal (just hit the next milestone)\n \tDo something SMALL and ONE-TIME, like writing one blog post or going on one walk (anything is better than nothing)\n \tDon't tell others\xa0you're\xa0going to do it (just do it and brag about it later)\n \tUse the new month as an excuse to run a new "experiment", but keep doing more what's making money and less of what's not making money\n\nLet's just call this a "New Month Accomplishment." This way, it's something small and S.M.A.R.T. that you can knock out.\xa0The reason why the end-result is so small is because the journey is more important than the destination, you're trying new things (and re-visiting old things that worked...