Getting motivated for the New Year can be challenging after indulging oneself with Christmas delicacies and New Year’s parties. Many people undertake resolutions both inside and outside the workplace to stay motivated. They aim to improve themselves and be a better person than the one they were the year before. However, 80 percent of New Year’s resolutions fail by the first week of February. These resolutions need to be turned into more concrete goals and objectives that are set to be accomplished throughout the year rather than one resolution to be adhered to.
In this blog, we will discuss alternative methods to staying motivated going into the New Year. We will illustrate why they can be more effective when utilized in the right manner.
How to Get Motivated for the New Year
Mindset
First and foremost, your mindset needs to be right. There are two areas of thought for the topic of mindset according to Ryan Gottfredson, PhD. These are examined in his upcoming book Success Mindsets: Your Keys To Unlocking Greater Success In Your Life, Work, & Leadership. People have either ‘fixed mindsets’ or ‘growth mindsets’. A fixed mindset makes you believe that you can’t improve your current self. These people give up quickly on tough tasks, and hence don’t aspire to be better. A growth mindset allows people, with effort and belief, to get even the most difficult of tasks done. More importantly, these people have a willingness to grow as a person.
Going into the New Year with a fixed mindset isn’t the end of the world. People can always transition into having a more growth-orientated mindset.
This can be done through 3 different steps:
1. Acknowledge Small Wins:
One must first convince themselves that they are able to improve their ability in the New Year. This can be done by celebrating small wins that you achieve, no matter how personal and little they may be. This puts you with the mindset that if you can achieve small wins. Then you can potentially achieve bigger ones in the future.
2. Change your Internal Dialogue
Talking to yourself in a positive manner can play a huge part in believing whether you can change or not. Doing this, and focusing on what you’re learning as opposed to focusing on what you’re failing at, you can shift your fixed mindset to a growth mindset.
3. Meditate
As a resolution or not, meditation is a great way to help motivate yourself for the New Year. It has proven to aid the increase of self-resilience. This is a very powerful mindset that doesn’t let us get demotivated from failures.
Define your why
“What is success to you?” “What inspires you?” These are the sort of questions you must ask yourself to help understand why you are working in the first place. To help stay motivated for the New Year you have to be working towards a goal that you truly want to achieve.
Why work towards something that you don’t care about? A recent study from LinkedIn reported that 49% of employees would trade a portion of their salary to continue in their current role with an added sense of purpose. The study also revealed that these purpose-driven professionals prove to be extremely valuable talent. 30% are more likely to be high performers and almost 50% are likely to be promoters of their company. We find inspiration in the work we enjoy doing and are demotivated in the work we dread. In order to motivate oneself, we need to focus on what aspects of our job we truly enjoy.
Defining your why allows you to focus on what your purpose is in life. Once you’ve understood this, you can form the goals that you want to achieve and will hence be motivated to achieve them as they are what you truly want. Whether this is for occupational or personal goals, finding your why is imperative to grasping the motivation to complete the work you do.
Forget Resolutions- Set Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly/Annual Goals
As previously highlighted, resolutions are not sustainable. Once we have highlighted our purpose, we can start to plan for our goals. This can be done by breaking down said goals into actionable steps by setting a few goals to be achieved throughout the year and at the years end as explained by Michael Johnston, Founder & CEO of Zelo. Through these steps we can gather small wins throughout a period of time until the full goal is reached. Johnston also highlights how it is important to not set too many goals so as to not be overwhelmed by the amount of to focus on.
Entering the New Year makes this an ideal strategy, creating a clean slate for you to create actionable steps throughout the year in order to reach your overall goal. This goal can be set to be accomplished at the years end or only after 2 weeks, regardless of the deadline, planning for the New Year is a great way to get motivated for your new goals.
Appoint an Accountability Partner
“When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.” — Thomas S. Monson
Heading into the New Year, it’s safe to say that you are not the only one planning goals and objectives to hit throughout the year. Others you may know do it to, so why not appoint an accountability partner to help keep each other on track with your goals throughout the year?
According to research, by The American Society of Training and Development (ASTD), people who want to have accountability partners and use this method are 65% more likely to reach their goals. For the individuals who set up regular check-ins with their partner, the numbers sky-rocket to 95%. Having an accountability partner can significantly increase the likelihood you succeed. Being made accountable for your actions motivates people a lot more to complete tasks. As humans we like to please others and this is heavily linked to the fact that there is a higher chance of committing to goals and staying motivated if someone is doing it with you and checking up on your progress.
The Perfect Time to Get Motivated
The New Year is an ideal time to get motivated and plan your goals throughout the year. Now more than ever, it is important to keep these methods of motivation in mind to help stay on top of your goals. Whether it be transitioning from a fixed to a growth mindset, defining your why, breaking down goals into small steps or appointing an accountability partner, your goals are there to be hit for the coming year. It’s time to apply some methods for us to stay on top of them. Whether it be employing one or all of these methods, they will be sure to aid you in making the New Year a more successful and enjoyable one. If one of your goals this year is to avoid stress at work, see how you can do that here!
