Year I Will (Broadway Books, New York, 2006) quotes statistics that
approximately 45% of us make New Year's resolutions but only 8% succeed.
According to Mike Sion, writing in Woman's Day magazine, (Save Time Next
Year) almost 25% of those people making New Year's resolutions lose their
momentum after one week. And back in 1993 a St. Petersburg Times article
reported on a study conducted in 1988 that tracked 200 people who made New
Year's resolutions. Within a month, 55% had abandoned their resolutions. At
the end of two years, only 19% had kept their promises.
Motivation has a lot to do with it, and so does the structure of the goal or
resolution. David Niven, author of The 100 Simple Secrets of Successful
People (HarperOne, 2000) says that those who do not feel they are taking
steps towards their goals are five times more likely to give up and three
times less likely to feel satisfied with their lives. He claims that people
who construct their goals in concrete terms are 50% more likely to feel
confident that they will attain their goals and 32% more likely to feel in
control of their lives. So motivation and the way you go about setting goals
go hand in hand.
New Year's resolutions are usually weak attempts at goal setting. They
seldom are reduced to writing, and have no deadline dates. Follow the
guidelines for effective goal setting, and your batting average for New
Years resolutions should improve.
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