Do not make a New Year’s resolution.  Seriously, don’t do it.

Okay, wait a second, hold up here.  Is this a life coach telling someone NOT to set goals for themselves?  Aren’t coaches the ones preaching goals this, and action steps that, and New Year’s resolutions up the you know what?

Sure, granted that’s pretty standard in the coaching field, but I’m going to give you a heads up on an awesome coaching secret:  while goals are great, and planning for the future couldn’t be more responsible, a New Year’s resolution is neither a great decision nor responsible.

I mentioned why this is the case briefly in my previous blog post here, but read on to find out why you shouldn’t create one of these yearly resolutions, and instead put a twist on the whole “making goals” process.

1. New Year’s resolutions are built on a shaky foundation.

And that foundation is a number.  A digit.  A year.  Four characters on a piece of paper that is defining the motivation for you setting a new serious goal for yourself that obviously means a lot to you.  Think about it:  if the reason you’ve decided going to the gym three times every week this year is because the number 2014 changed to the number 2015, I would question whether that is a good enough reason to keep you motivated enough to pursue that goal each and every month throughout the year.

Which brings us to this gem of a statistic:  only 8% of people are successful at keeping their New Year’s resolutions.  If you’re anything like me, that statistic just leaves you feeling all fuzzy and warm inside (sorry, just a bit of sarcasm from your life coach!).  Of course there are many reasons why these resolutions fail, but if I might throw my two cents out there, I would argue that the foundation from which the resolution was built on is mostly to blame.

2. Instead, make goals all year round, instead of on ironic dates on the calendar.

Please, please do not leave this post thinking that you found an anti-goal coach.  Rather, I would argue that you should make a lot MORE goals than just a New Year’s resolution, all year round.  See, goal creation is not about choosing the absolute perfect date on the calendar; instead, it’s a continuous open conversation with yourself that a self-aware individual conducts regularly.

So what is a sure fire way to make a goal with a solid foundation?  Well, choosing the foundation is probably the first step.  For example, let’s take the classic New Year’s resolution-esque goal of losing weight and eating healthier.  Great, now ask yourself, why am I looking to achieve this goal?  Is it because other people are guilting me into feeling like I have to (or magazines and movies making me feel insecure), or is it because I want to do it for myself and my own self-confidence and physical health?  If it’s the latter, then I’d say you’re off to a great start.  Moral of the story:  the foundation (or motivation) matters.

3. And if New Year’s resolutions work for you, by all means, continue!

If you’re one of those few people in which New Year’s resolutions are an important part of your goal setting process, and you’ve had past success in meeting and achieving those goals, don’t stop on behalf of me.  Keep going!  Rock that New Year’s resolution each and every year.  But for all the rest of us who need more of a motivating factor than 2014 changing to 2015 to get us to the gym, we’re going to need to be smarter than the ball dropping on the TV.

And… yes, of course achieving any goal is a really really hard thing to do, and can be a topic for another day.  However, goals become much more doable if the reason for the goal is rock solid and comes from yourself, since an internal motivator is always much more persuasive than an external one.

Challenge yourself to make a list of reasons why you want to achieve the items on your goals list, and see if those reasons are valid and healthy, or if they could use some tweaking.  Consider involving others in your goal setting process too.  And for discussion below, if you’ve set New Year’s resolutions in the past, how have those worked for you?  Happy New Year to everyone reading! :-)