Okay, let’s be honest with ourselves.  How many of us have already faltered on one, if not all of our New Year’s resolutions?  Come on, confession is good for the soul.

Well, I’ll be the first to say that on my pursuit towards my fitness goal I have already detoured quite a bit.  I won’t talk about my goal to read through the bible in a year.  Oh boy!

The truth is, at the beginning of the New Year, we are bursting with excitement and new ideas until reality hits.  The grading starts piling up, bulletin boards require changing, and students aren’t as cooperative as we would hope.  At this point, the goals we had set are but a distant memory.

Research shows that out of the people that make resolutions, 54 percent give up on their goals within six months.  According to a research conducted by the University of Scranton, only 8% of people actually follow through to achieve their New Year’s goals.  Pitiful, isn’t it?

If we have set those “pie in the sky” goals with no practical plan or strategy to make them happen, we are doomed for failure.  Worse still are those goals that get squeezed in with a laundry list of other commitments.  Our eyes are sometimes bigger than our level of self-control and commitment, so we bite off more than we can chew.

But if we have set a sensible list of doable goals, it IS possible to gain the traction we need to see them through to fruition.  Here are just three ways to gain momentum that will help you to follow through and achieve your goals this year:

1. Take ONE BITE at a time. When my own children get frustrated over all the school assignments they have to do, I like to ask them, “How do you eat an elephant?”  Of course, they roll their eyes because they know just where I’m going with this question.

I must say though, that I’ve been guilty of getting frustrated and consequently becoming stagnant just from trying to tackle too many big goals all at once.  This lunacy certainly will not lead to productivity.  Focusing on one goal and even breaking it down into increments will generate success that will act as the catalyst to help us take on other goals.

2. Convert your goal into DOABLE BEHAVIORS.  Just saying that we want to have a more organized classroom, a leaner body or even that we want to spend more time with our family, doesn’t quite cut it.  We’ve got to decide on the measurable actions that must get done in order to actualize these goals.  Whatever the target might be, figuring out what practical things can be done in pursuit of it is a vital step.
3. Do something EVERY DAY no matter how small.  Big goals still require small steps.  If we commit to doing something every day, we’ll be surprised at what we will have accomplished at the end of a week, a month and even a year.

So, what do you need to do TODAY?  Read a page of that book?  Clear out a messy draw?  Write a journal page?  Eat a salad?  Create a new classroom management plan?  Whatever it might be, the important thing is to TAKE ACTION and be consistent with it EVERY DAY.  Oh sure, you might fall off the bandwagon every now and then, but don’t let the downward pull of gravity keep you there.

This could very well be your best year ever.  You just need to decide that it will be.  Get into action, and then let the momentum help you follow through to the finish line.  You can do it; YES YOU CAN!!!

Leave a comment:   What do you do to help yourself gain momentum towards achieving a goal?