It Won’t Happen Overnight, But It Might Happen In A Fortnight

Half way through February, it’s safe to say most of us have failed at our New Year’s Resolutions. Weren’t you meant to be “toned” by now? Taken up finger painting? Don’t worry. I’m good at setting goals too. Ask me to set a goal and I will set 10! Ask me if I’ve executed them and I will have failed nine. (You know, because Write Down List Of Goals was the first.) See, the problem you and I both have is not that our goals are too big or ambitious or unrealistic. The problem is we set a goal in the first place. And setting a goal, quite simply, doesn’t work very well. Habits do.

Now before you think I’m crushing your dreams of running an ultra-marathon, I assure you I am not. We’re just taking the freeway instead of the dirt track. It’s a matter of flipping your New Year’s Resolution on its head and replacing the ol’ G-word with the H-word. Because goals are not only overwhelming (scary) and broad (not measurable), they are often too focussed on the outcome instead of the action. You are concentrating on the destination instead of doing That Thing You Need To Do to get you there.