Would you like your New Years Resolutions to work – Put them into a Sticky Trap.
Happy New Year! Are you like me and wonder where the time goes? It feels like we keep saying things that start with the words “it feels like only yesterday when…” or “if only I had done….” Right?
With this in mind and with it being the New Year, we often find ourselves setting ourselves goals known as resolutions. Get fit, stop smoking, and cut down on the booze. How often do they stick? Not often. You only have to visit a gym in the January to see it packed with people with good intentions, only to find two to three weeks later those people not around.
So how can we make resolutions and goals work? My advice is making them sticky and trap them!
Setting goals is good practice, in business and in our personal lives, but if they don’t stick then how can we achieve them? Not only that, if we do achieve them then how do we keep them going, sustaining the effort and benefitting from the results?
As coach and trainer when I work with clients, setting goals is par for the course. The sustainability part is the magic.
I have created S.T.I.C.K.Y. T.R.A.P.P.S. a little framework with big benefits. First make them S.T.I.C.K.Y.
Sustainable: When you set any goal, start with the end in mind. So you have lost 10 pounds, how are you going to keep it off? So you want to make at least 5 cold calls a day, great, how will you keep the momentum going. Just by thinking ahead, you can put something into place to make sustainability happen.
Tactical: This relate to the tools and support you will have in your life to help you to keep things going. It might some training, it might be working with a group of people doing the same thing, and it could breaking down the components.
Interesting: Let’s face it, if you have little interest in the goal or resolution then your motivation is going to be super low. Look to why you want this goal achieved and sustained, what’s created it and keeping it alive? How much do you want it?
Connected: What can you do to keep yourself in touch with the goal you want to achieve? Is it about using a support network to keep you focused and disciplined? Could you use a diary to record progress and little slips (yes they can be good too) Remember out of sight is out of mind, keep your goal front of mind at all times.
Kick it! : As you start to work out some goals, put a review date in place to check your progress, this way you can see change happening and it will begin to deliver some great benefits, kicking a bad habit or giving yourself the kick up the bum you needed might be just the ticket.
You: Only you can make the first step, if you don’t start, however hard that might be, then you will never grow. If you always do what you have always done you will get what you have always got. What is the smallest first step that you can take today?
Now you have made it sticky you have to trap it, with my T.R.A.P.P.S. framework.
Train it: If this is something new then it needs to be trained or learned so do that, get the skinny on how something relating to your goal is done and learn the skill.
Repeat it: Over and over, repetition is the mother of learning.
Apply it: Now build it into your everyday routine, just like brushing your teeth, make it part of what you do.
Practice it: Keep going, keep practicing, get it wrong a few times by all means, at least you are still practicing it, this will lead to….
Perfect it: You’ve got it, it works, and it’s like riding a bike! Your new skill as part of your goal is doing you proud. Now refine it, perfect it, and get it shiny and brilliant so that it becomes something you are proud of and you can help others with. You will become the example by which other follow, how incredible would that be? Just don’t stop!
Sustain it: Yes we’re back to sustaining again, once you have reached your goal think about the small things you can do to keep the momentum going. The “just one more” mindset is good, one more set of reps in the gym, one more client call, and one more book to read, this is how we sustain.
So there we are sticky traps. The new secret to effective resolutions and goals, I hope you like them. Why not write them down. It’s a start.
Have a look at those things you want to achieve in the New Year. I would say good luck, bon chance, but you wont need it.
If you make them sticky you stand a great chance of success.
Thank you for reading this, if you need help setting goals then get in touch with me Simon at Simon@serialtrainer7.com
