Why New Year Resolutions Usually Fail
Posted in Watkins Business by Eldon on December 26th, 2006 Home based business people, like many others, will make various resolutions around the New Year. Some of these will be personal goals (quit smoking, lose weight, and so forth). Others will be business and income goals like “make more money in 2007″. Today, I want to discuss why personal goals often fail. Over the next few days, I’ll go over reasons business goals fail and what to do about it.
Let’s take a typical personal goal - to quit smoking. Regardless of whether you quit cold turkey or quit with assistance from medications, it is still very hard to quit smoking. When you say “I will quit smoking”, this tends to be a negative thing in your mind. You think of deprivation, pain, suffering, cravings, all the things that traditionally make quitting so hard. Let’s say that January 1, 2007 is Day One of your quit smoking effort. You will probably feel deprived, and focused on maintaining a serious amount of will-power just to make it from one hour to the next. This is painfully difficult, and is a big part of the reason that many just throw their hands up and give up. It is easy to say “I’ll try again later, this is not a good time to quit smoking for me”.
There is another way to approach a goal like this. This also applies to weight loss as well as quitting smoking and other habits. Try visualizing your life without the habit. If you are a smoker, imagine yourself feeling better. Imagine going places without having to sneak outside for a smoke all the time. Imagine going back to the gym and having the energy to work out and look better. Picture the lifestyle you desire that is not possible while you are smoking. If you can create this picture, and hold it firmly in mind, it will reinforce your effort to quit and make your success much more likely. You are not likely to effect and sustain such a radical change as quitting smoking unless you are motivated by a vision or dream that is positive in nature.
What does all this have to do with Watkins, or network marketing, or home business in general? Resolutions we make to stop bad habits, and replace them with more desirable habits, can improve our ability to work our businesses. Improvements in our personal lives can definitely have a positive effect our business success.
About the Author:
Eldon Beard is a Watkins Manager with Associates All Across the USA and Canada
