Here we are again, another year passed by and we are back at making New Years resolutions. In the past you might have heard us say how much we don’t believe in New Years resolutions because they are a false positive. What we mean by that is someone who waits until a random date to create change in their life and is simply doing it for the sake of doing it, and not so much to create real change in their lives… So what type of person are you?
In today’s society, everyone likes to believe they can change for the better and New Years is always a great start as a new year means new results but ultimately it is those with New Years resolutions that believe the least that they can actually change and they are the ones with the least amount of chances of actually reaching their resolutions.
Reality remains that change is possible but far from easy, and that every passing second is a chance to turn it all around and change anything you want but real change requires two things from a person desiring to change.
The first is your ability to recognize the things that need to get changed and actually understand why they need to change.
Think of a famous resolution about losing weight as an example. We often set goals like losing X number a of pounds as the goal but never actually understand the reasons why we seek change. We never look at the health aspects or our eating habits and actually look at ourselves as fat or agree that we need to lose weight to live better. Instead we just say “I want to lose 10 pounds to look better”. These types of resolutions, even if reached, simply do not last as the change only occurred for the moment. The real change would have been to stop eating as much, exercise more, or simply eat healthier. Those changes have no expiration date but are rather part of your habits you are changing for the long term benefit of your health. The loss of weight comes as a result of this change and remains constant even past that original number based goal.
The truth hurts but is very well needed in order for real change to occur, regardless of what change we seek. We must accept who we are today or where we are in order to change.
The second is to change your outcomes through your habits and not vice versa. In other words, target what things you want to change that you do today rather than wanting to change just an outcome.
A good example of this is around finance. Many people always set resolutions around saving more money and living better but very few actually focus the change on spending less. Spending less actually leads to having more left over to save, but that’s not as fun as saying “I want to save more” which is often why its an irrelevant resolution that dies off in a few months. You must face the reality that you need to spend less on things you don’t need and manage your finance closer in order to eventually be able to save more. The problem is that we just don’t like making resolutions that are real game changers because those actually take work and to be truthful have nothing to do with a January 1st date.
The real changes we seek and the real improvements we want in our lives are not tied to a date and are not based on a new year but are rather changes we need to make today as we know they are affecting us negatively even if continued. We need to have the will power to accept our flaws rather than sugarcoat things for ourselves and put in the hard work to actually change for the best. Just remember what we said in Stay Poor, where we showed you how a smoker who spends more than $5,000 a year on cigarettes could actually own a $120,000 car instead of smoking if he quit for one year.
Keep in mind this year your resolutions are often no different than last year, and within 6 months will be way in the back of your mind while other issues will keep you from fulfilling on your own promises to yourself. How can you expect the world to take you seriously when you can’t even better yourself for your own sake. This year, play your cards differently and instead of making blank resolutions, make habitual changes that will change your long term outcomes instead of your gym schedule for 3 months.
This has been a reality check by Secret Entourage…
