Four Ways to Improve Your New Year’s Resolutions

Photo credit: Tim Mossholder of Unsplash.com

Four Ways to Improve Your New Year’s Resolutions

I’ve been in my own business since December 1975 and every year I make few resolutions that I’d like follow through on for the new year. Some of them survive and are completed and others mysteriously fade away. What I’ve discovered is that in order to keep a promise that I’m essentially making to myself, it has to be exciting, fun, and filled with assurance of a successful outcome. That’s a tall order, isn’t it?

It helps if I tie it to a reward, like, if I make five contracts to speak at events, I will take five days off on a special vacation. If the vacation spot is in Costa Rica or the Mexican Riviera where I can snorkel, go hiking, or maybe a zip line (my favorite!) I get excited and really go to work. This type of planning makes my tenacity kick in because I’m jazzed to go.

When the previous year has been tough like 2022 was (I broke both ankles skiing and had both knees replaced, remember?) then my planning for a trip becomes even more important because I want to bounce back with lots of resilience. We all talk about being resilient, but it’s a hard thing to do sometimes. As I was trying to recover from a lot of leg trauma, I knew I needed to go to the gym when I all I wanted to do was feel sorry for myself and stay on the couch. But, forcing myself to get up and go was rewarding as five months after my last operation I was able to start snow skiing once again. This was a mid-year resolution that I concocted with my doctor as a dangling carrot to keep me focused.

Every year I say to myself that I’m not going to make any resolutions because let’s face it they are hard to keep. So, I must bring my imagination

to the surface and create something unique to play with. In my line of work often I want to speak to a particular group, association or business genre’. By setting a goal to reach the right person, at the right time, with the right message I can get excited with the prospect of making it happen. With all of us who are selling something that means a lot of calls, emails, blogs, and videos need to be produced, but that’s all stuff I love. I get to use my imagination and creativity while brainstorming to come up with a game plan with new topics, artwork, and ideas to make it happen.

What this all boils down to is satisfying my purpose in life. My son and his wife are expecting their first child in a few days. This will be my first grandchild and to say that I’m excited isn’t an exaggeration. Her name will be Olivia Renn, cool name huh? I suddenly had a new purpose in life when I found out I was going to be a grandpa. I want to live a long life to spend time watching her grow up, plus, I want to spoil her rotten!   

Lastly, I’d like to welcome a new sponsor to my blog, Michael Nash of Remax Masters Millennium. He’s a full-service realtor in the Denver area and can satisfy your needs in residential and commercial real estate. Give him a call or send him a referral, I’d appreciate it.

Remember to take a TRIP for a lifetime, not a trip of a lifetime!

Happy New Year!

Keith……