Welcome to the first ever posting on my blog that I hope will help you reach your true potential! Since it is a New Year let's talk a little about goals vs. resolutions and give you some tools to help you stick to it this year.
Let's start with resolutions and the reasons they so often fail....how are you doing with yours this year? The main problem with reolutions is that we rarely give the much thought ahead of time feeling as though simply deciding to do something different will magically work. Perhaps another problem is that we know they are doomed to fail anyways so what's the point? Every year we meet with a bunch of friends, indulge ourselves in a number of ways and decide that we are going to wake up the next morning and change! The fact of the matter is that resolutions fail because they deal too much on a suface level and fail to stimulate us on an emotional and subconscious level.
In a February 2010 article In Triathlete Magaine, Ben Greenfield states that "to understand why most resolutions fail, you need to understand the concept that our conscious minds have very little control over our day to day actions nd perceptions. As a matter of fact, the conscious brain makes up about 17% of total brain mass, but only controls 2-4% of our perceptions and behavior. But the non-conscious brain occupies 83% of total brain mass and controls 96-98% of perceptions and behaviors.". If this indeed is true is it any wonder why we fail? Think about the reolutions you made this year...what state of mind were you in when you made them? If you were like most you were a bit inebriated. I don't know about you but 2-4% of an inebriated brain does not sound like a stable platform for life altering change.
Greenfield continues to talk about how the brain works when threatened with change and why the subconscious mind will almost always win in this situation. If you would like a copy of the article let me know and I can email it to you; but, I can tell you here it boils down to goal setting and mental training. I will get to goal setting in a minute but as for the mental training aspect I would highly recommend picking up a copy of "10-minute Toughness: The Mental-training Program for Winning Before the Game Begins" by Jason Selk. In this particular book Selk draws on his lengthy experience working with athletes on all levels and lays out a very effective 5 stage daily workout that includes goal setting activities and solution focused tools which involve mental imagery, positive self-talk and controlled breathing. The book is broken up into 3 phases. Phase 1, the mental workout, features chapters on clearing mental clutter and improving focus, phase 2 reviews effective goal setting and motivation techniques and phase 3 focuses on how to develop solutions to specific situations. A great read whether you want to use it for improving your health and wellness or performance on the job!
Now that we have scratched the surface on training your brain let's talk about goal setting. I prefer to use the SMART goal setting process in both my own life and with my clients. SMART goals are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely or time-bound. Think about your own resolutions again...were they any of the before mentioned? I always find it somewhat humorous that we tend to treat our personal life so flippantly. At work we set goals, review them, talk about them, re-evaluate them, share them are reviewed based upon them and can argue that without them we would do nothing but sit on Facebook all day. There is a lot of back-end work and paperwork and thought that go into these goals; yet, in our personal life we do none of the work and expect all the results...hmmm.
SMART goals can give you an excellent platform for change. They put your goals in front of you, hold you accountable to them and keep you moving forward. In the words of MLK "a goal without a plan is just a wish.". SMART goals will become a big part of your plan of making lasting meaningful change in your life. You can search for SMART goal worksheets and find one you would like to sue. If you would like a copy of the worksheet I use with my clients let me know and I will send it to you via email.
Please feel free to post comments, questions, concerns, ideas and even compliments!
