{"id":500,"date":"2015-12-31T13:50:53","date_gmt":"2015-12-31T13:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/french.kwiziq.com\/blog\/?p=500"},"modified":"2017-01-13T14:16:01","modified_gmt":"2017-01-13T14:16:01","slug":"secret-sticking-new-years-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/french.kwiziq.com\/blog\/secret-sticking-new-years-resolutions\/","title":{"rendered":"The secret to sticking to your New Year’s Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

(This is my improved process for achieving personal goals. I’ve worked through an example of using it to help learning French but this will work for any goals you set for yourself.)<\/p>\n

Every year I make resolutions and set goals and whilst I always get a lot done, each year my ambitions seem to outstrip my achievements. When I look back at the end of the year at what I said I’d do, despite my successes, there’s always this nagging sense of failure. <\/p>\n

Why set goals at all?<\/h3>\n

In fact, goal setting is one of the best (proven) ways to help with language learning. If you don’t set learning goals, you’re statistically much less likely to make progress.<\/p>\n

One day, I decided to take a look and see what I could do improve my own processes and structures for achieving what I want. I realised there was huge room for improvement. It’s great having goals, but unless you do things to keep them present in your life, they soon fade from memory and focus – along with your chances of achieving them. I came up with this improved process for achieving New Year’s Resolutions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My new process was definitely an improvement on previous years: I managed to stick with it for six months (instead of just the first month), arguably a 600% improvement<\/strong>. Then I revised my system again, learning from what did and didn’t work the previous year.<\/p>\n

My inspiration came from software development (which we do a lot of). Years ago, most companies developed software using something called the Waterfall Methodology<\/strong>. Nowadays, most companies use something called Agile<\/strong> instead, and it’s a huge improvement. I realised the same lessons can be applied New Year’s Resolutions and life goals.<\/p>\n

The Waterfall Design Process looks like this:<\/h3>\n
\"Image<\/a>

The Waterfall Methodology for software design, largely abandoned<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

The reason people have abandoned it is that when you try to design something competely up-front, by the time you finish building it (a year or more later), you realise it isn’t what you really need at all.<\/p>\n

The Agile approach uses small iterations<\/strong> instead, where you constantly make “course corrections<\/strong>” based on feedback and you end up with much better products<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a>

The Agile Methodology for software design results in better software<\/i><\/p><\/div>\n

I realised my annual goal setting exercises are very much like the Waterfall method: deciding a whole year in advance what you want is simply too much to bite off. It’s fine to have vague goals a year ahead, but the problem with vague goals is they’re very hard to pin down into actual actions. My goals were great, but by half-way through the year, I gave up on them because I realised they weren’t working and the structure was too rigid to adapt.<\/p>\n

An Agile approach to making New Year’s Resolutions<\/h3>\n

So, I decided to be Agile about my New Year’s Resolutions. The secret behind Agile’s success is higher time resolution<\/strong> in the development cycle. The same secret applies to personal goals: higher-resolution Resolutions!<\/strong><\/p>\n

I no longer make New Year’s Resolutions.<\/strong> Instead, I make New Month’s<\/i> Resolutions<\/strong>!<\/p>\n

This actually gives me the freedom to continue setting vague yearly goals (you do need to know the rough direction you’re heading), but my resolutions are at a “higher resolution” than a year.<\/p>\n

I make resolutions monthly – only one month at a time<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

I start with January resolutions (small, actionable things I can complete by the end of January) and then in February, I can see how that went and make appropriate course corrections. This is a much better approach than New Year’s Resolutions.<\/p>\n

There are good and bad ways to set goals, the usual advice applies (so-called S.M.A.R.T.<\/strong> goals):<\/p>\n