I recently received an email from Adam Khoo, Singapore’s most prominent motivator and self-enrichment guru. He had outlined FOUR REASONS why people have failed to achieve their New Year’s resolution. Yes indeed, these reasons are the same reasons that have been bugging me for years. If anyone fails in their New Year’s resolutions, it must be because of these FOUR FUNDAMENTAL REASONS. Let’s discuss and dissect each one of them in details.
Reason #1: Vague, Unspecific Goals
Solution: Get Clear on What You Want
The goals people set are often vague and non-specific. They set goals like ‘ to lose weight‘ or ‘to make more money’. When you are vague, you will never get what you want. It is often said that CLARITY IS POWER. You need to set specific, measurable outcomes so your mind knows exactly what to do and what needs to be done to get it.
For example, set goals like ‘to lose 10kg in 90 days and to weigh exactly 48 kg’. When you are specific, you can then develop a plan on how many calories to consume a meal and how many hours you need
to work out on a treadmill to burn ‘X’ calories per day.
When you set a clear goal like ‘to increase my income from $4,000 month to $$10,000 a month in 5 months. You are clear that you have to build an extra income stream (s) of $6,000. You can
possible develop a plan to earn an extra $2,000 from Internet marketing/ads from blogs, another $2,000 from trading FOREX and another $2,000 from doing part-time commissioned sales/tuition.
Comments: This is like designing a KPI for yourself in certain key result area (KRA), now I am sounding like a McKinsey consultant 
. Whatever the goal you have, it must be SMART i.e. SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACTIONABLE/ACHIEVABLE, RELEVANT AND CAN BE PUT IN A TIMELINE. This helps to add clarity to your goals. My goal for this year is to achieve USD10,000 income per month by middle of the year by increasing my presence in the online and offline world. I guess it will start with a change in strategy and tactics.
Reason #2: Lack of Consistent Focus
Solution: Focus on What You Want Daily
The second reason many people don’t get what they want is because they write a goal down, put it aside and forget about it until a year later. In the meantime, they get distracted and caught up with
the daily struggles and demands of life.What has really helped me is that I write my goals down on large
pieces of Poster sized paper and stick it near my workstation, in my bedroom and in my office. I even design my goals onto my computer desktop wallpaper. This way, the goals are constantly IN
MY FACE and ON MY MIND 18 hours a day. This makes me constantly remind myself to move towards my goals and to act in a way which I want.
Comments: This is so true. By doing it this way, you pile a lot of pressure on yourself to keep focus on the goal and avoid your daily demand routine traps. To achieve something out of the ordinary, you should break from routine and elevate yourself. You will feel pressured and unsatisfied if you don’t do anything that day that will help you move towards your goal. You will feel pressured to create a proper plan in achieving it.
Reason #3: Interest But Not a Commitment
Solution: Make a Public Commitment
Let’s face it. Many of us think of goals we would LIKE to achieve. We think it will be NICE to have. However, often times, it is not a strong COMMITMENT to MUST do it. As human beings, we are also great at breaking promises to ourselves and we start to justify. “I know I said I would lose weight but it’s just too difficult so never mind, Nobody will know anyway’ is the common thought.
If you want to make things happen in your life, you have to make goals a COMMITMENT by putting yourself on the line. Make it very hard for you to turn back. What I often do is when I set a goal
(e.g. recently I set a goal of writing a book ‘Secrets of Successful Teens’, I make a PUBLIC COMMITMENT by announcing it to my friends, family, facebook, BLOG and pretty much everyone I meet.
When you keep talking and announcing what you must do and change, your brain will give you no choice but to do it. This is a tough thing to do, but IT WORKS. So, my challenge to you is to announce your goals on my blog (under comments) so you are committed to make it happen.
Comment: I have just announced it to you people that I intend to make USD10,000 per month by 30th June 2009. Hope everyone will support me towards this goal.I am gonna put it as a wall paper on my desktop, a poster at my desk and in my bedroom. I just hope that I have better commitment this time.
Reason #4: Lack of Personal Power
Solution: Take Charge of Your Mind and Take Action
The last thing that stops people from success is that they do not take action. They don’t use their personal power to get the results they want. What stops them from taking action are things like FEAR,
PROCRASTINATION, SELF-DOUBT, LAZINESS etc…
You have to understand that you are in control of your own thoughts and emotions, Using techniques like NLP, you can learn how to control your mind and direct your focus to motivate yourself and
break through negative habits and behavioral patterns. You have to learn NLP to develop focus and drive yourself to take massive action to get the results you want.
Comment: I hope the posters that I have made will have great impact on me putting things in action quickly. I have several projects ready to fulfil my dream income but will need to program my mind everyday to focus on it to the extent of waking up at 12 or 1 am to do the required work that will help me towards achieving this goal..Hey I woke up at 12 am just now just for this :)..
If you are interested to know more about Adam Khoo who became a millionaire at 26, you should click this link. I guess life is short, you should make it worthwhile to live. Create a challenge for yourself everyday and it will leave you satisfied at the end of it.
