Here’s What’s Better Than Setting A New Year’s Resolution For 2020…

If you are anything like most people, for the past month or so you’ve been thinking about what you want to accomplish in 2020. Now, I don’t know about you but I stopped making New Year’s resolutions in my twenties.

I started to see that, every time I resolved to do something, it rarely got done (if ever!). At first, I thought it was all my fault. But then I look around me and I could see that others are struggling with the same problem every year.

So I started doing something else.

And guess what? For the first time in my life, I reached every single goal I set…and now I want to share my process with others.

If you’ve been anything like me and I found yourself disappointed by New Year’s resolutions every year, you’re going to love this article.

2020 Is Upon Us – What’s Your Goal For The Year??

Step 1: Set Goals. DON’T Make Resolutions!

The first thing I want to take a look at is goals versus resolutions. When I was younger, I used to set up a bunch of resolutions right at the start of the new year.

I would obsess about all the things that were wrong with my life for the majority of the previous year.

And then, once the new year had arrived, I did a bunch of stuff that lined up with my resolution.

For example, if I wanted to lose 10 lbs, I would start going to the gym I would make sure that when I went grocery shopping all my food had organic certifications, and I bought a bunch of healthy food cookbooks.

I had all my actions right, and my resolution was clear.

Unfortunately, I didn’t actually have a goal set. All I had was my measly resolution, and if you don’t know this already, resolutions are rooted in our ego.

Your ego will help you take action when it’s not satisfied… but if you don’t attach enough emotion to your resolution, you can never turn it into a goal.

Don’t believe me? Well let’s take a look at the same example of a goal instead of a resolution.

Years ago, I set a goal to really enjoy how my body looks in the mirror naked. I’d already tried setting New Year’s Resolutions.

And while I wasn’t fat, I wasn’t at my ideal weight either.

So, my goal was to love how I look in felt…and it wasn’t tied to a certain amount of weight loss.

I made it purely emotional…and guess what?

It only took me two weeks to reach my goal versus 5 years of not fulfilling my weight loss resolution. My mind was blown.

I then started setting goals for business and family, too. So far, it works like gangbusters, and I will never set resolutions again.

All of this written, let’s move on to step 2, because it’s seamless and makes more sense than anything else I’ve ever done.

Step 2: Find Your People

One of the things I made a huge mistake with when I was younger I was trying to do everything by myself.

Like lots of teenagers and 20-somethings, I assumed that being an adult meant doing everything on my own. I’ve always been kind of headstrong and independent, and I really enjoy reaching major milestones in life.

I also love it when people are proud of me. That has always been a huge, personal motivator – especially when my family and my loved ones are proud of me.

Before my wife and I got married, we read the 5 Love Languages by Dr. Gary Chapman, and it turned out that I really love words of affirmation.

This fact should have been a clue for me learning the type of environment where I’d be most successful…

… but unfortunately, I missed my own clues.

All my years of going it alone were self-sabotage because I really needed my people. My Tribe.

I needed their words of support and encouragement…

…and now that you’re in the process of swapping out resolutions for goals, you’re going to find that you need your people too.

And if you’re a person of color (and I am), you might even find that you need a little more support simply because of societal and cultural norms.

A study done in April of 2010 found that people in minority groups who need to lose weight do a lot better and are more likely to keep it off for the long term if they have accountability and community.

So I joined a gym and I also got into the fitness profession as a trainer.

Doing both was a game changer. Not only did I lose the weight, but I found a way to help others in the process, which turned my goal into something very personal and achievable.

Even better, I met and became friends with people who had bigger goals than myself, and I was able to take my love for personal training and transform it into an entire health marketing career.

Nowadays, I get to help people from all around the world and not just in my local community. I help them in fitness and in business.

See how setting specific goals is way different and setting generic resolutions?

My goal led me to my Tribe of people who supported me when I needed it the most…but my resolutions only led me to disappointment every year.

Additionally, My Tribe of people also helped me to set new goals.

Without them, I really wouldn’t be where I am today professionally, materially, or physically.

And that leads me to my final step in this very simple (and completely doable) process.

Go tell someone about your goal.

Step 3: Go Tell Somebody

You may already be seeing this, but just in case you’re not…steps 2 and 3 kind of go hand-in-hand. Let me explain…

Before I ever set foot in a gym, but after I had set my goal, I reached out to someone and told them what I was planning to do and ask for advice.

It was someone I trusted (my wife), and I knew she had a huge network of friends because we have children and lots of my wife’s friends are other moms. I used to be a bit of a loner.

Anyway, my wife gave me the name of the gym, and she gave me the name of a couple of trainers I might want to talk to. I ended up joining the gym, and I still belong to it to this day.

So you’re going to want to go find someone you trust and ask them for suggestions. This is literally the first step in creating your community, and you will be surprised at how helpful people will be.

My wife was the first one to help me, but once I got to the gym and started asking others questions too, I got even more help. And I made friends.

And I made business connections…and ultimately, I’m writing to you, today.

All I did was set a goal and ditch the resolutions.

Here’s More Inspiration To Reach Your Goals For 2020

Only 8% of people who set New Year’s resolutions actually achieve them each year. By the end of the first week, 25% of those people quit working on their resolutions.

And by June, less than half are still working on what they say is important to them.

That really hard to understand from the outside looking in, but when you realize that you’re one of those people who have not achieved all their New Year’s resolutions either, you start to think about it a little differently.

The primary reason that New Year’s resolutions fail is because they are not rooted deeply enough in our emotions.

Remember what happened when I stopped trying to lose 10 lbs and instead tried to fall in love with the way my body actually looks and feels.

That weight MELTED off! I finally had the inspiration I needed to do the right research, connect with the right people, get to the right location, and take a right actions.

But it all started with a goal. Once you have your goal in place, you can feel free to get specific about it.

Use The SMART Method When Setting Goals

After you have your goal in place and you are starting to interact with your tribe, I strongly recommend getting really specific with your goals.

I already shared with you that it was my desire to lose 10 lbs. I knew that going into the new year, but I didn’t make it my focus. I focused on how I looked and felt.

After getting to know my tribe, they helped me to get specific and they showed me how to measure my results each week. Here is what the SMART method looks like.

Specific – What is your resolution? Is it specific enough or is it too broad? What needs to be done to achieve it? Why do you want to reach it?
Measurable – How can you measure your progress? How will you know if you’re on track?
Attainable – Can your 2020 goal setting actually be achieved?
Realistic/relevant – Can you achieve your goal? Is the resolution worth it?
Time – What’s your time frame for reaching your goal?

Now, I will admit that I didn’t worry as much about the time as I had in the past, but time is a part of the SMART method.

Feel free to do what you need in order to make the method work for you. If you don’t want to worry about time, then don’t. But if doing things in a certain amount of time is inspiring for you, definitely put the pressure on yourself!

Remember: we are all different. Do what works best for you.

Here are some other things you can do to stay on track with your goals and keep yourself inspired. I only wanted to lose 10 lb, but I have helped people lose a hundred pounds, before. If your goal is bigger, your inspiration needs to be bigger too.

It doesn’t matter if you’re trying to buy a house, get out of debt, start a business, or just be a better human being.

Here are some things you can do to make your inspiration and your goals go hand-in-hand.

Here Are Some Ideas To Inspire Yourself Into Reaching Your 2020 Goals

Visualize Your Goals. If you are an artistic person, you can create a vision board where you have pictures of all your goals after you reached them. You just put up pictures of a new house if you’re trying to buy a new home. Attach pictures of people with beautiful hands if you’re trying to grow out your nails and have good looking hands.

If you don’t feel very artistic, you can simply write out a list of your goals. You could even start a blog like I am done, and you can use it to keep people informed of where you are on your journey.

Whatever it is, you should be able to see it. Hang it on your wall or frame it. Just make sure that it’s somewhere where you can see it, every single day.
Stay Organized With A Planner. I used to think planners were boring, and it still takes me a fair amount of effort to stay organized because I’m not naturally so; however, when I put things in my calendar, it becomes effortless to stay on track with whatever I’m doing.

Like I said earlier, you have to do what works for you. Buying a paper planner and carrying that around with me everywhere will not work for me. But plugging things into my calendar online is great. The calendar syncs with my phone and my computer, so I know what I’m doing wherever I happen to be.

A paper planners work well for you, use them. Or feel free to try my digital method.
Celebrate Reaching Goals. If you’re anything like me, you don’t need much of a reason to celebrate. I love making a party out of things. When I lost my first five pounds, I took my family out to eat to celebrate. I had a huge salad that was amazing and didn’t take me off my goal.

And when I lost the last bit of weight, I celebrated that, too.

You can tailor your celebration to your needs. Celebrating can really inspire you to keep going!
Do One Thing At A Time. Sometimes, I self-sabotage because I try to do too much. My mind runs a million miles a minute, and all the things that pop into my brain or things I think I can do right away.

That’s a recipe for burnout and disappointment.

Let’s say you wanted to start a blog this year. Well, you can’t buy the domain name, write 20 articles, and generate a hundred thousand views per month in your first week.

Do the first thing first, and you do it do it well. Then, you do the next thing after the first thing is completed. Trying to do it all at once is ridiculous – and impossible.

Instead of trying to do everything quickly, pace yourself. You’ll find you actually get things done come and you’ll feel a lot better about it.
Review Last Year. This method is probably the most motivating one for me because I hate being stuck. The way it works is you take a hard look at last year. Write down everything that didn’t go the way you wanted it to go. And write down the reasons why. Be honest with yourself.

And then go fix what didn’t work the previous year by setting emotion-based goals that really matter to you.

You Are Now Empowered To Reach Your Goals For 2020!

Whenever I read long, complicated articles on goal setting and resolutions for the year, I get annoyed. Most people don’t want to do all that stuff…

… and while setting and reaching a goal requires work, it’s different when your emotions are tied to what you’re trying to do.

I needed a simple plan that was easy to incorporate into my natural, daily routine. Talking to my wife was easy. Deciding that I wanted to feel great about my body was also easy – and inspirational. Finally, having the support for my tribe was what sealed the deal.

These steps can help you lose weight, find a new job, create a new social and professional circle, and meet any goal you set for yourself.

Hopefully, this article has been useful for you.

Tell me: Do you make New Year’s resolutions anymore? What is the process you use to reach your goals?