NYE Resolutions: Only 64% Still Going Strong by Now

Progress
So, by now about half of the people who have made new year's resolutions have either failed or gave up already. Technically, both of those outcomes are the same, since you have to decide to stop trying if your first attempt didn't work. One of my resolutions this year was to talk less; more specifically to say what I want with fewer words. I can honestly say that I'm failing miserably. In fact, I'm pretty sure that I'm more long-winded than ever. I haven't given up on that, though, and have made a list of things I can do to practice using less words to express myself (discussed below). It's a work in progress. Another resolution of mine (I wrote a list this year) was to make my monday to friday training schedule non-negotiable. So far so good. A few exceptions included teaching classes and minor injuries, but overall my momentum is going strong and training couldn't be better.
 An interesting side note: although not formally a resolution, I read about a psychological experiment about people giving up their right to complain for a set period of time. I'm about two weeks into a forty day attempt at this and although it can be challenging I'm getting great results. I highly recommend that you all try this, even if it's only for a week!

Stats
According to the University of Scranton's Journal of Clinical Psychology, we're not alone. In fact, of all the people you know that made resolutions, it's only expected that 8% of them will achieve their goal how they said they would! I plan on being in that group and then we can make it bigger each year. It's easy to feel strong right after you make your resolution, 75% of us can breeze through the first two weeks, but only 64% will make it through the first month and that drops down to a sad 46% after six months. By have way through the year, have of us have already given up! Most of this can be fixed with some clear and organized goal setting and an action plan. Step by step we can get there, we have all year!

Accountability and Action Plan
Since the last time I've written about being accountable to your goals and making an action plan, even more studies have been done (or at least discovered by me) to support these claims. Achievements need to be planned and defined. So make sure you keep your resolutions specific and if they're vague, create smaller goals to organize exactly what it is you want and how to get there. Also you should own your goals. Claim your resolutions by telling someone about them and keep them informed on your progress, the good and the bad. This has been studied and proven to increase your chances of success by over 20% (I'm currently researching and compiling studies in this field for an upcoming book. Keep checking ScrapyardFiighting.com for updates on this.). <-------------Me holding myself accountable for the completion of this project.
For my resolution of using fewer words, I've created an action plan. I realized that I wasn't succeeding at this because it was too vague. It wasn't a resolution in that state it was more of a wish. So, I've started using all forms of written social interactions (Facebook, Twitter, Social E-Mails, Text Messages) like they have a character limit. Twitter is a social media site that enforces a 140 character limit on every update, keeping interaction short and sweet. I've recently started doing this everywhere I could think of and I'm starting to get the hang of it. It's still a bit of a challenge, but soon it will become the norm and, hopefully, become a habit even when speaking. I will, of course, continue to ramble and rant here on the blog though.

Hopefully you haven't given up yet. If you've already achieved your goal for the year, feel free to make a new one. Don't brag and don't get lazy, I'm in the business of punching people. If you've failed or are losing momentum remember that the solution might be as simple as just telling someone or writing down some steps to getting started. Make them as immediate at possible. Nothing you can't start doing within the week; the next three days are even better. Whatever your resolution was, it's clearly something that was important to you at some point so keep going for it! I sincerely hope this helps. I'll be bringing this up again in a few months and hopefully you won't be one of the 22% of people who will give up between now and then! In the meantime, train safe and train hard.

Jordan Bill
Fight or Die

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