Everyone does it- resolve to do something different, change something about themselves or their career at the beginning of every year and by the end of the first month most have already fallen off the wagon! It’s not that those who are making the resolutions don’t want to reach the goal that they have set for themselves or don’t have the drive to see it through, the problem lies more in the resolution itself!

Most of the time when we make a resolution we focus on an end result: To lose weight! To stop smoking! To stop cussing! To start a business! To clean out the closets…you get the picture. These are all end results! But how many of us take into consideration the process to get to these end results? Ah, here is the problem-there is a process!

When you make a resolution to, lets say, get in shape, the process to get to the desired goal is that you must change your eating habits, exercise regularly and address any health concerns that may be hindering you from losing weight. But the biggest concern of all is that you must address the reason for your current situation with your weight and that my friend is internal!

When we make resolutions we tend to focus on the external and rarely do we address the internal reasons for our current state. If you want to stop smoking have you addressed the reason why you smoke? Do you get nervous and smoking “calms your nerves?” Address why you get nervous and how getting nervous makes you feel! Does being in a certain situation trigger some other thought-rejection perhaps- that causes you to be nervous that causes you to want to smoke? Do you see how it all goes together?!

Business coach/Trainer Julius Henderson wrote a book called “The 7th Decision” which deals with decisions (resolutions) and the process to getting to the actual decision. I love this book and highly recommend it to anyone looking to make life changes!
It’s perfectly OK to want to change or discard old habits and create new ones. Just make sure that when you are deciding on what you are resolving to change, that you consider the other decisions that will go into making that change! I suggest sitting down and making a list of things that will also have to change if you are going to fulfill your resolutions and see if these additional decisions are something you can handle.

For instance, can you deal with changing your eating habits if you want to lose weight. Are you prepared to scale back your living expenses that often come with starting a business if that is your goal! These are all decisions that must be considered if you are going to fulfill your resolution.

So, go ahead! Make your resolutions and be prepared to address other areas of concern that will ultimately help you be all that you resolve to be! You can do it! After all, you are awesome! Amazing! Resilient! And powerful! You are YOU!!