It’s the beginning of another New Year, and I’m finding myself thinking about what for many of us is a common tradition, reflecting on another year behind us and writing our resolutions and goals for the new year. 

I’m not big on creating New Year’s resolutions. I used to be, but over the last few years, I’ve shied away from making them, mainly because I rarely follow through on most of them anyway.  It’s not that I don’t want to or that I’m not sincere in wanting to achieve the goals I set for myself.  It’s just that in the past, most of my resolutions didn't have a clear plan attached to them as to how I was going to achieve them and I would end up more frustrated than liberated, as a result of the goals I set for myself. So I've shifted my focus to developing habits that are aligned with my overall life objectives, instead of creating specific, carved in stone goals that I have to achieve in a set time frame.

I also don't feel magically different just because it's a New Year and don't feel compelled to radically change my goals just because it's a new year.  My goals this year are pretty similar to what my goals were last year.  In some areas I'm further along and in other areas I've fell behind. So instead of focusing on what I ultimately want, I focus on the path I need to take to get there, which is an ongoing process.

Some of my past resolutions have been things like:
 

1. Record A New CD
2. Get A Record Deal
3. License A Song In A Feature Film
4. Get Into Amazing Shape
5. Get out of debt
6. Find My Soulmate
7. Make a million dollars
8. Lose ten pounds
9. Double my income
10. Become as famous as Bon Jovi

And so on…

On the surface, these all seem like pretty reasonable and worthwhile objectives. Well most of them do.  Some of the goals I’ve set for myself I’ve achieved, or have at least gotten close to.  I’ve recorded a lot of music over the years.  Although I haven’t landed any of my songs in major films, I’ve licensed a lot of music in television.  Although I’m not in what I would consider “amazing” shape I’m pretty fit and healthy for my age.  I’m not debt free and worth a million dollars, but I’m working on it and am much more financially secure than in the past. I have a girlfriend and although it doesn’t feel like we’re exactly soulmates every day, I’m extremely happy and don’t want to be with anyone else.

But the problem is, a lot of the goals I’ve set for myself over the years I don’t really know how I’m going to achieve when I set them.  I set goals that I often have only a vague sense of how to go about pursuing.  This is why my results are mixed and I suspect this is why so many people struggle to reach the goals they set for themselves each year.  The goals themselves aren’t bad or wrong, but most goals people set are an end result of actions and habits that are necessary in order to be realized.  Which is why I think it makes more sense to set goals related to your habits/actions that you know you can and will take, as opposed to setting huge goals that are an end point you may or may not be able to reach. When I really think about it, the goals that I’ve set that I have achieved, are a result of healthy habits I’ve developed over many years.  They weren't the result of just coming up with huge goals at the beginning of each new year and then waiting for them to magically be realized.

For example, if your goal or resolution is to get a record deal, wouldn’t it make more sense to create a resolution to contact x number of record labels a month?  Or if you goal was to license more music, how about the goal of submitting your music to 20 new licensing companies a month?  One goal is out of your hands, whereas the other is a concrete action that you can easily measure and get in the habit of doing.  If you’re goal is to get into “amazing shape”, how about set a goal of doing some form of exercise every single day or several days a week.  I think you get the idea.  Think about what you can actually, realistically do to create the momentum to move towards the direction of your dreams, as opposed to just setting goals of magically arriving at the end point and the wondering why you fail to achieve so many of your resolutions and give up before you even get started.

The idea of developing and cultivating habits as opposed to setting goals, might sound like an unnecessary distinction, but this shift in thinking, in my experience, makes a huge difference.

For example:

Goal:  I want to license a song in a major motion picture
Habit: I will pitch my music to at least one company a day that places music in films

Here’s another…

Goal: I want to sell a million downloads of my music
Habit: I will working on promoting my music on social networks, like facebook, youtube, twitter, etc at least two hours a day

Here’s one more:

Goal: I want to find a girlfriend/boyfriend
Habit: I will approach one potential mate every day and strike up a conversation

And another:

Goal:  I want to double my income this year
Habit: I will spend an hour each day investigating new ways to create revenue

And just one more…

Goal: I want to have a million dollars
Habit: I will start saving 20% of my income and investing it wisely.

By focusing on habits, as opposed to specific desired outcomes, it frees you from the pressure of trying to control things that are ultimately outside of your control, and allows you to focus on the only thing that you really can control, your actions.

In the past I would make “resolutions” that were so grandiose and out of my control, that I would get discouraged and wonder why nine months into a new year I didn’t seem to be any further towards reaching my goals than when I made them in January.  By focusing on habits, instead of specific goals, I find myself moving closer, gradually, to the life of my dreams.

What about you?  What works for you?  Do you make resolutions?  Do you achieve the goals you set for yourself each year? Do you give up on your goals before you get started?

Share your thoughts on my blog:
http://www.aarondavison.net/blog/are-new-years-resolutions-stupid