With 2018 just around the corner, many us will be making New Year’s Resolutions. But breaking our promise to ourselves is the perfectly acceptable outcome to the normal resolution. This sad reality is extremely well documented and here are the odds for normal resolutions:
- 25% of people quit within the first week
- 33% of people quit within the first two weeks
- 40% of people quit within the first month
- 60% of people quit with six months
- 92% of people quit within twelve months
Only 8% of people who make a New Year’s Resolution will keep it. But that is for normal people, making normal resolutions.
But for 2018, I’m inviting you to join me in moving forward. Let’s get those tired, terrible resolutions behind us. Join me in making (drumroll!) a Post-Normal Resolution.
“What’s the heck, Jon?,” you ask. “There’s no such thing.” you say.
Sure there is! I made one for 2017. I stuck to it. Here comes 2018. And now it is your turn.
Here are two key differences for your Post-Normal Resolution: simple and measurable.
“Why simple?” you ask. Well, a normal New Year’s Resolution is usually overly difficult and often pretty much impossible to keep. Something like, “I’m gonna get into those jeans I wore in college,” or “I’m rock some abs by summer,” or “I’ll stop letting my laundry pile up in the bedroom corner.” (Okay, I made that last one up. Nobody else does that, other than me, right?) But you see the problem? Normal resolutions are unplanned, unstructured, and private moonshots we know we’ll likely never make, but we’ll half-try and likely fail, just like last year. Who came up with this idea of setting ourselves up for failure on the first day of the year, anyway?
“Okay, Jon, you mentioned measurable. Back to the point…” Alright, flashback to our college jeans and our future abs. How do we gauge our progress on that? Do we have multiple pairs of pants that gradually taper in the waist? Somehow we go from our current girth to our college girth? And am I supposed to go from Dad Belly to Beach Body in a week? Or three? Or thirty? How do I know I’m doing well, or if I’m just failing the whole time? Cats and dogs living together… it’s anarchy!
So a Post-Normal Resolution is first: simple and easy and we pretty much know we can do it, we just have to put in some time and some effort and we’ll kick that resolution’s butt up and down the street. And second: a measurable resolution that know we’ve done it right or we know we haven’t done it right.
In my video, I cite two Post-Normal Resolutions from friends for 2017: making a bed each morning, and not drinking sweet tea any more. How simple are those? Pretty dang simple. Are they instantly measurable? They are. Do you think anyone could do them? Probably. But that’s the secret: anyone can do them, and they provide positive changes in anyone’s life.
Got it? okay. Are you in? Great! Because, if you’re in, you’re in. And we’re all going Post-Normal in 2018.
