How to Avoid Sabotaging Yourself the Rest of 2016

About 150 million Americans make New Year’s resolutions every year. That ends up being a lot of very disappointed people.

A quarter of those people will abandon their resolutions in just a week. Fewer than half will still be on track by summer. Ultimately, only eight percent will be successful. That means, by this time next year, 138 million of us will still have the weight we wanted to shed, the debt we pledged to pay down, and the bad habits we hoped to put behind us.

But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way. Whether it’s in life or in business, there are a number of things we all do to thwart our resolutions—ultimately making them unattainable.

Instead of setting yourself up for failure and sabotaging your goals, take a mental note of these tips—then avoid them like the plague for the rest of 2016.

Taking on Too Much

For Dayna Corlito, owner of GYMGUYZ on Long Island, it’s about paring down your ideas to create achievable and well thought-out goals.

“When creating goals, I literally start with a brain dump of all the things that are in my head that I want to accomplish and get them down on paper,” Corlito said. “On a second pass, I filter the goals that are realistic, achievable and will add value personally and professionally.”

Not Creating a Realistic Timeline and Plan of Action

“Goals are great, but you need to have a plan to achieve them or odds are fairly high it won’t happen. The action plan doesn’t have to be extensive; it just has to start you off in the right direction you need to go,” Corlito said.

Kevin Edmonds, a multi-unit franchisee and area developer with WORKOUT ANYTIME*, echoes those sentiments.

“Goals are much more attainable when you have an end result in mind,” Edmonds said.

Not Documenting and Revisiting Your Goals Regularly

“Make sure your goals are documented and placed where they are visible every day as reminders,” Edmonds suggested. “It makes it easier to hold yourself accountable.”

Corlito adds that sometimes revisiting your goals regularly can help you realize they’ve changed as well.

“Just like in life, things change—and so do your goals. So I find it important to revisit them once every few months and first assess whether your goals are still the same as when you started off. Then benchmark how you have done against the action plan you set for yourself.”

Not Reevaluating When Things Aren’t Working

So you’ve set your goals, you’ve created a timeline and plan of action, but as you revisit your goals to make sure everything’s on track, you realize there’s still one problem—you aren’t achieving them with your current action plan. Now what?

“Revisiting your goals is also a good time to reevaluate whether or not the goals are realistic and achievable,” Corlito said. “Sometimes you have additional clarity when you come back to revisit objectives several months later. It’s also worthwhile to spend a little time factoring in what you did and did not accomplish and update your plans for the next several months.”

Giving Up

The biggest mistake any person or business owner could make is abandoning the goal altogether.