Within weeks of the start of the year – or a month or two at best – the comments abound in the newspapers, online and on radio and TV with readers, listeners, columnists and presenters lamenting their inability to follow through with their resolutions.
Their once-firm intentions have been abandoned and they berate themselves for their lack of resolve. They have, in their words, “failed.”
However, as most life coaches tell us, there is no such thing as failure – just feedback; a lesson for the future.
It’s up to us to use our experience in a positive way. If we are learning to ride a bicycle and fall off, we get back on. No one said we would be free wheeling from the word “go.”
In an earlier article, I mentioned Thomas Edison and his quest to invent the electric light bulb. At each unsuccessful attempt, he simply refined his process and stated: “I have not failed. I have just found 10,000 ways that don’t work.”
So, what can we do differently? How can we refine our processes? What type of support network do we need to have in place this time and how can we remind ourselves of how much better our lives will be if we achieve what we set out to achieve?
Sometimes it helps to have an inspirational song, piece of music, image or text in our head. For me, it’s any of the many breathtaking views of England’s Yorkshire Dales to the sound of Mama Cass giving us the immensely uplifting It’s Getting Better.
I speak to many goal setters about the images and songs that spur them on and each is inspirational in its own way – a mother seeing her baby daughter wake each morning, a journalist thrilled by an ocean drive to the sound of Bruce Springsteen’s Thunder Road and an artist friend who adores watching winter sunlight break through trees.
Some goal setters report how “going public” and declaring their goals to others on a blog can be “liberating”. While it has taken them time to consider carefully what they genuinely want to achieve, once they’ve committed their thoughts to cyberspace, they’ve committed themselves to action.