It’s that time of the year again: The new year has begun and for many of us, it’s a fresh start for a resolution. Many millions of us seniors once again have resolved to improve one or more aspects of our life: To communicate more often with our children. To consume more water each day. To lose weight. To walk around our block each morning.
Perhaps you’ve set your sights on a form of self-improvement. Whatever your resolution may be, it may be most effective to break it down into smaller goals. Approximately 80% of resolutions fail, often just a couple of months into the year. Why? The resolution is too big or too vague to support meaningful day-to-day change.
Let me give you an example: Here’s what Jerry Seinfeld resolved when just starting his career as a stand-up comedian. (I also encourage you to check out the full story in his autobiographical documentary, Comedian, now streaming on Netflix.)
He wanted to become a comedian. That began with getting good at writing jokes. The only way to become talented at joke-writing is to write them. Jerry made a New Year’s resolution to write at least one joke a day. To celebrate that production, he marked a big X on a prominently-displayed calendar. By week’s end, he’d accumulated 7 big X’s. Now, he didn’t want to break his string of success, so he kept it up.
Jerry was proving that consistency beats intensity. He wasn’t writing an entire stand-up set in a day: Just one joke. That was manageable. He also held himself accountable by noting the days on the calendar when he wrote a joke. By readily seeing that progress, he was motivated to keep going.
So potentially set your sights more modestly, at least at first, when embarking on a self-improvement journey. Losing a pound each week will achieve far more in the long run than losing 10 pounds in a week of severe starvation…followed by a gluttonous week of over consumption.
Grab a calendar and a black magic marker and stick your calendar in plain sight, where it can constantly reinforce your goal. Make your goal something you can do each day. Then see how many X’s you can string together.
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