Hey guys Daniel here from Next Level Life and today we’re going to be talking about
New Year’s Resolutions, why they usually don’t work as well as how to finally stick
to your’s this New Year.
So, 2017 has just begun and naturally I found
myself looking back at 2016 and thinking... man I got to do better in 2017.
And if you’re like me you know the feeling, there’s so many things that you want to
accomplish when the year begins maybe it’s wanting to quit smoking, or start working
out a few times a week, or eat healthier, or get out of debt. Maybe it's all of the above.
But that’s really the problem isn’t it?
We get all psyched up to do all these great things that will change our lives… and then
by February we’ve lost all our motivation.
Our resolutions are so numerous and daunting.
There’s so many things that we have to do to stick to them that we end up getting overwhelmed
and we fall off the wagon.
Or at least that’s usually how it went for me but recently I’ve found a better way
to approach this whole New Year’s Resolution thing and it’s actually quite simple…
You’ve got to focus on The ONE Thing.
The ONE Thing is a book written by Gary Keller that admittedly isn’t focused on sticking
to things like your New Year’s Resolutions but it does cover some ideas that actually
proved extremely helpful for me when I was struggling to stick to my resolutions.
The first is to focus, as I mentioned before many of us, myself included, start
the year with several different things we want to accomplish and we try to do them all
at once and eventually run out of energy and not actually accomplish anything.
So the trick is to focus on one resolution at a time, now I know you’re probably thinking
to yourself Daniel I’ve tried that and it didn’t work any better, in fact it went
the exact same way it did when I had many resolutions, I’d be killing it during January
but by February I’d run out of steam and this year I’m back to square one.
I completely understand, I’ve been there myself, but stick with me, I think I can fix
that.
So in addition to focusing on one resolution at a time we need to break down the resolution
into really small, easy to do steps.
And we need to make sure that the steps have a time limit on each of them.
Now I’m going to use getting out of debt as an example because it’s one that I’ve
actually done, but you can apply these principles to just about any resolution you have.
So the secret to getting out of debt is to live within your means and stop spending money
you don’t have.
I know it’s not a new idea, but here’s
the thing, even though we all know that’s how to get out of debt and stay out of it,
nobody seems to do it.
According to CNBC about 75-80% of Americans were in debt or living paycheck to paycheck
in 2015.
And I'm honestly surprised it wasn't higer. So how do we fix it?
We need to start breaking down our goals into little bite sized chunks.
So as an example, if your goal was to pay off $6,000 on your car loan don’t make your
resolution “I’m going to pay off $6,000 on my car loan by the end of the year”.
That’s a good goal, it’s specific with the amount you want to pay off and the time
period you want to do it in, but it may seem a little daunting at first. $6,000 is a lot of money, so instead what
we should do is get out a sheet of paper and break the goal down.
Alright I’ve put up a slightly modified version of a figure from the book, feel free
to follow along with me, you can pause the video if you need to, but in this example
we are trying to pay off $6,000 in a year so that’s our one year goal that means we
have to pay off $500 a month.
Now at this point some of you might be thinking, “Yeah, but, if I’m already living paycheck
to paycheck how the heck am I going to come up with an extra $500 a month?”
Well, you have to start taking a serious look at why you’re living paycheck to paycheck.
For some of us, we’re living paycheck to paycheck because we’re unemployed or for
some other reason can barely afford to pay our basic survival expenses in which case
I’m sorry to hear about that, but there are people out there willing to help you.
And there are some things you can do in that situation to save a little cash until you have an income again.
But, anyway, for most of us it’s because we’re spending money on things that we don’t
really need, whether it’s going out to eat, or going to the movies, or the getting a latte
on the way to work everyday.
Now I came home from college for winter break a couple weeks ago and went out to eat at
a buffet with my mom and sister. And not a fancy one either, mind you.
That one meal ran us over $50!
Think about how much money that is if you’re going out to eat once or twice a week.
Add in those daily lattes and you’re already pretty close to that $500 a month just not
eating out. Now obviously everyone's expenses are a little different but we all have some non-essential items we spend a good amount of money on.
So we’ll put that down as our ONE Thing to do for this month (no eating out).
Now another reason that people’s resolutions fail is because they depend on their sheer
force of will or discipline which just doesn’t work.
Humans are by nature undisciplined creatures, at least over the long term.
We can be really disciplined for short periods but most of us can’t be consistently disciplined
for months at a time.
The solution?
Make your desired behavior a habit.
This will take some discipline over the short term
, but once it’s formed you barely even have
to think about it and ultimately that’s how you’re going to get it to stick.
You make it automatic.
So for our weekly goal we’re going to focus on one thing that’s needed to make a habit
sticks… enjoyment.
Because for a lot of people, going to movies or out to eat with their family and friends
are how they have fun.
It can be some of the best parts of your day.
So we’re never going to stay on track with our resolution if we can only achieve it by
cutting all the fun out of our lives.
So for your weekly ONE Thing we’ll put “Figure out at least 3 new and inexpensive ways to
have fun with family and friends”.
I recommend you come up with at least 3 just in case your family and friends aren’t on
board with your first idea.
One example that I’ve used is setting up a weekly game night at a friend’s house.
That costs nothing more than the gas to go over to our friends house, which I often did
before or after going out to eat anyway.
And I put this as the weekly goal because it gives you time to talk it over with your
friends and family and also because there are more pressing things to cover first like
our daily goal which in this example will be to go out and get groceries for the meals
you’ll be making at home.
Which also means that the logical immediate goal is to plan those meals.
A couple of other things that I would recommend would be to tell someone you trust to hold
you accountable what you’re trying to accomplish.
Sometimes all you really need when you slip up is someone there to remind you why you’re
doing what you’re doing.
In our example, being reminded how much freer you’ll feel when you’re debt free may
be enough to relight that fire and get you right back on track.
And as far as slip ups are concerned, don’t kid yourself they will happen from time to
time.
My advice would be to not beat yourself up for them, recognize the mistake maybe laugh
about it and go right back to doing things the way you planned.
And when you meet a goal, even if it isn’t the last one, celebrate!
It’s a great accomplishment and it’ll make you feel good and motivate you to keep
going.
Now the interesting thing about all this is that the effect of this process often seems
to touch other parts of your life.
Technically the only thing that you’re doing to get out of debt is to not eat out, but
when you do that you seem to start to spend less in other areas.
If you’re not picking up that latte every morning you’re also probably not buying
that $8 lunch combo.
And if you’re deliberately planning meals your meals you also will generally spend less
on groceries, because you’re thinking through each step of the process.
You may even realize how easy it is to live without buying so many different things and
find it easier to walk through a store without making any of those impulse buys.
That’s how it happened for me anyway.
It’s actually quite amazing and I tell you there are few feelings better on this Earth
than looking back at your progress and realizing “Wow, I did it.”
The self-esteem and confidence that you get from that carries forward into the other things
in your life.
It’s kind of like what the book talks about with dominoes.
It says that if you set up a bunch of dominoes of different sizes with the smallest at the
start and the largest at the end and you knock over the smallest domino, it’s momentum
will allow it to knock over a bigger domino which knocks over a bigger domino until they
all fall down.
In our example the smallest domino would be a metaphor for the car loan you’re paying
off.
You keep chipping away at that debt until it’s gone and then you can put that extra
money you have now that you don’t have a car payment and use it to start paying off
something else, like a credit card, this cycle continues until you’re debt free!
And believe me when you start putting that extra cash to your remaining debts they start
disappearing fast!
But you know what the best part is?
You get to look back on this experience and say “Man, if I can do that, I can do just
about anything.”
And when you get that kind of self-confidence into your life the world
starts opening up to you.
And that’s when life gets really exciting.
That’s life at the Next Level!
Hey guys, Daniel here I hope you enjoyed the
video and got some value from it.
I really appreciate it if you guys could comment down below on things that you think I can
improve on in future videos, this is my first one so I’m not exactly sure what will be
helpful to you guys and what won’t, I’m kind of learning this as I go along.
And I'd also like to apologize for the audio quality. I'm using my phone while I'm home from school. Hopefully when I go back to school and have my proper equipment again the quality will be better.
And if you liked this content and want to see more be sure to subscribe, I’ve got
a lot of great stuff planned for the future.
But that’ll do it for this video I wish all of you the best of luck in 2017 and remember
don’t let anyone stop you from taking your life to the next level.
Get out there and CRUSH IT!