Happy New Year to all my fellow riskologists around the world! I hope 2012 brings you many adventures and opportunities.
Speaking of the New Year, right now is the most popular time for all of us around the world to stand up and say to ourselves, “This time, things will be different.”
If something didn’t go the way you wanted it to last year, then the slate’s been wiped clean and you can try again. Free do-over!
The new year is exciting. Nothing’s actually changed, but it feels like you have a whole new chance to start over. And the truth is that you do. The problem is that the most common change is one of resolutions instead of actions.
Resolutions are nice, but perhaps we should set “actolutions” instead.
Of course, we all know the promises we make ourselves at this time of year are only as good as the actions we take. If you’ve made a list of goals and resolutions for yourself this year, then it’s probably a good idea to ask yourself, “How, exactly, am I going to actually do these things?”
Having a roadmap for the course you want to set is a great tool for achieving it, but more important than a roadmap, I think, are your motivations for it.
Why do you have the goals you have? What are the driving factors behind them? Why do you want to change what you do?
In so many situations, “Why?” is the most important question you can ask, so don’t get to far ahead of yourself—answer this question first.
Are the goals you’re setting really yours? What’s influencing them?
It’s good to be very honest with yourself about this even if the answers aren’t exactly what you’d like to hear. If your desires don’t come from deep within yourself, finding the motivation to carry them out can be pretty difficult. And without motivation, meaningful action becomes just as elusive.
This year, if you plan to change something in your life, make sure it’s really your life that’s motivating the change.
Whenever I do this myself, I usually find that some outside influences have worked their way into my goals. And when I look at the things I’ve wanted to do and failed at, this problem appears over and over.
The environment you’re in shapes you, sometimes quite dramatically and usually more than you realize. This year, take a risk and let your dreams actually be yours. Forget about your friends, co-workers, or anyone else that wants you to join them in some challenge you don’t care about and will give up on before anything changes.
Take a risk and follow your own lead. People will be confused. They’ll ask why. You’ll explain and they won’t understand. But you’ll understand. And that’s what’ll keep you going when it gets difficult.
And, with some hard work, that’s how you’ll do something meaningful for yourself.
Good luck in 2012. Of course, if you follow your own lead this year, you probably won’t need it.
Now over to you: How do you keep the motivation flowing on your own big plans?
~~~~~
Postscript: The Bootstrapper Guild is opening again to another small group on Wednesday. If you’d like to join, you need to be on the waiting list.
The list keeps growing even though I rarely promote it, so please only join if you’re serious about launching and growing your micro-business this year.
Image by: vpickering
Hey Tyler,
Thanks again for your insights into New Year’s resolutions. I find myself making a ton of resolutions each year, but when I look back I always ask myself “why in the world did I try to do that?” It’s so true that the resolutions I make need to be my own and not yours, as tempting as it might be for me to try to emulate you or other bloggers that I look up to. One resolution I made last year but failed to follow through was to write a manifesto. I thought “hey, all the cool bloggers have one so why not me?” But looking back I realized that writing a manifesto was an external goal that didn’t jive with where I was at that point in my life. When I resolve to write a manifesto or anything for that matter, the reason needs to resonate within me first. So again, thanks for your insight!
Hey Adam. I know what you mean. When you’re trying to learn something new, it can be tempting (and even beneficial) to mimic others until you get the basics down. Eventually, though, you have reassess and make sure the direction you’re heading is one of your own. Otherwise, yes, motivation problems soon start to get in the way of real progress.
it not so much,motivation since that can only go so far. 80% of the stuff I do is something that I will love to get up at lest 300 days out of the year.
The rest is stuff i have to do say get a job or do something that, I don’t like to do but it helps someone else.
I tell a story about how each month will play out, I will point out this is NOT a perdition but it does give me a focus point.
for example:
My body ached sweat rolled of my rock hard ab’s the foot came crashing down towards my head. I rolled out of the way the foot smashed into the ground.
My kickboxing instructor seem to simile for a second or was that my imagination?
etc, will it happen like that i dought it but i can see myself doing that and i get into because of that.
lol, i reread that i can of messed up writing that
To be perfectly honest, I’m not quite sure what you’re getting at, Steve, but if it’s something that works for you, then more power to you.
I keep my motivation by use of my grand imagination. I can picture myself being where I want to end up on whatever journey I take. Seeing myself that happy (even if just in thought) pushes me to work through whatever issues arise and stay focused on meeting that endpoint.
An imagination is quite a tool, and something that’s a shame to ignore. Thanks for sharing, Pam.
Great post Tyler and I couldn’t agree more that you must “have a why that makes you cry” if you are to be inspired enough to take action. Happy new year!
Happy New Year, Bryan.
I like this post, it’s exactly what I think about every year. An evaluation of sorts.
What’s working for me –
*establishing routines that work- get up early, house hold chores done, anything that I’m putting off from yesterday gets done first thing before anything else
*establish goals “little” and “long term” – every day take one step towards the goals. It might be making a phone call, sending an email or doing 15 minutes of research. But make a step, even the smallest.
That’s the bright side of staying motivated.
There’s also the down side. I waste too much time on the internet watching and reading about what other people are doing.
I am too quick to criticize myself. Focus on the positive rather than beat myself up over mistakes or wrong choices.
Change is a fact of nature. I try to embrace it, rather than fight it.
You know, for all the flack that routine gets these days—spontaneity seems to be more popular—I get a lot ouf of mine and enjoy it quite a lot.
If you have something big to accomplish, a strong routine for at least part of your day can be the difference between actually doing it and putting it off another year.
Hells yeah! People go around setting New Year’s goals all willy nilly, without even really thinking about how achieving that goal will affect or improve their lives.
I keep it simple – I only set out plans and goals that I’m so friggin excited about. If it doesn’t feel fun, I’m not doing it.
That’s an old Jerry Garcia quote: “If it ain’t fun, why do it?”
Simple and fun work for me too.
I try to fit in all my serious work before noon.
That means “real money work” (landscape business and ebay listing), my blogging and the house stuff.
The rest of the day is mine. I try to do exactly what I want. Garden, read, write or what ever. The small morning and evening routines make that free time possible.
I’ve been doing something like this the last few weeks also and it’s been working quite well. Before lunch, I only allow myself to work on my most important projects.
Great post Tyler. It’d be easy to say, don’t set any goals and for most people, that’s probably better since they don’t follow through (and like @rebecca says, don’t think about how their lives will improve once they set those goals). @pam has it right, use your imagination to see where your goals will take you.
Other than that, it goes back to your post on how you run a marathon, one mile at a time, one mile after another. Set yourself up for success when you set your goals and take one small step forward as often as you can.
Yes, any goal becomes easier to complete when you have a real roadmap for it. To actually follow through, though, an internal motivation that keeps you going when things get difficult is a critical component.
Okay my resolution of eating an apple a day seems rather inadequate after seeing manifestos and marathons mentioned here. I am still keeping it! (There are others but this is the fun one.)
Well, just try to remember the whole theme of this article: Your goals ought to be yours, not anyone else’s.
Tyler…
Thanks for reinforcing something that I know internally but which often gets swept under the rug in my daily life. The world we live in is obsessed with productivity. The frenzy can be overwhelming. It is a discipline not to become brainwashed. Sometimes I see myself on the outside looking in. That’s when I remind myself of the ONE goal that I have chosen to be a major focus for this coming year. It is working at being more of my ‘authentic self’ (rather than the ‘false self’) in my life. Fran
It’s never a bad time to be more like yourself. Good luck with your focus this year, Fran.
[...] Joel Runyon, Steve Kamb, Chris Guillebeau, Nina Yau, Benny Lewis, Sean Ogle, Leo Babauta, Tyler Tervoorhen, Srini Rao, and Alan [...]
Hi Tyler,
I don’t do resolutions. I do observation and adjustment. All of the time. Every moment. You are 100% accurate that motivation comes from within. Yes, we must account for other people in our lives, and do some giving to them, but draw the line short of “at our own expense.” That’s a tightrope many of us walk, but if we can learn to do it then we will get the results we need and accopmlish the mission we are here to see actualized. Best wishes in 2012 and always.
A resolution would be “eat healthier”.
However, I chose an actolution instead. That is “eat two vegetables a day”.
I will be very happy if by the end of 2012 I eat two vegetables and that has already become a habit of mine. One step closer to healthy eating.
First year I made a real resolution so I better keep it and this is to overcome my shyness once and for all. Why? Obvious reasons, I just want to improve and my shyness is the only one thing that I really dislike from myself because it limits my real self.
Anyway, we’ll see how it goes!
Resolutions always require action if they are to mean anything. Sivers had a great lecture on TED about how talking about our resolutions/goals can sometimes give us a false sense of accomplishment – before we ever act on them. We have to be careful not to fall in the trap of “too much talk.”
Resolutions just help you delay/complicate getting things done.
Be like Nike and just do it..
http://www.mogulsandmushrooms.blogspot.com
I say it all the time “just f-in do it”. Don’t analyze, complicated and just get on with it.
Be better every minute!
[...] we should set “actolutions” instead,” from a little blog that I like to follow called Advanced Riskology. Thanks to my friend Carrie, who founded the “i made it markets,” for sharing it with [...]