Colin Robertson's Blog, page 6

Let Your Kids Fail – The Unbelievable Benefits of Learning How to Handle Failure

Wham!!

It felt like I was just hit by a truck. My head crashed hard on the field causing it to throb in pain. It was my first football practice since moving to the United States from Canada, and I was enduring torture. 

The player who clobbered me was DJ Jones (#73 in the picture) a 6’5, 310lb offensive lineman who went on to play in the NFL.

What have I gotten myself into?

I thought, as I lay on the ground with my whole body aching. I was considered a good player in my first year of high school in Canada. But compared to these Americans, I was basically worthless.

I was small…

I was slow…

And I was Canadian…

These kids had grown up in an environment dedicated to the game of football. I grew up in an environment where football is for kids who aren't co-ordinated enough to skate.

FAILING MISERABLY

For those of you unfamiliar with high school football in the U.S., there are 2 teams you can play on – varsity and junior varsity. The better players play on the varsity team, and the lesser players play on the junior varsity team.

In my sophomore year, I didn’t get playing time on either. I was technically on the junior varsity team, but I wasn’t even a backup. I was the backup’s backup!

Even worse, my role on the team was essentially to be a tackling dummy for the varsity team. They needed players to run plays against that they didn’t care about injuring, and I was their guy. 

After weeks of getting pummeled by players twice my size and no playing time to show for it, I thought long and hard about quitting. I loved football. I had played it all my life. But maybe I just didn’t have what it takes to play football in America with the “big boys.”

I felt like a failure, and I decided to tell my parents that I was going to quit.

But as I talked with them about quitting, they helped me realize that with each passing week, I wasn’t proving that I was a failure. I was proving that I was capable of handling whatever they threw at me.

I was a small, slow, Canadian kid, yet I was tough enough to hang in there with future NFL players every single day.

All of the sudden my perspective shifted.

I realized that if I can endure that pain, then I could endure the pain that it will take to get stronger, faster, and smarter. If I can take the beating in practice, then I can take another rep in the weight room, another sprint on the field, and another 30 minutes of studying my position.

FIGHTING THROUGH FAILURE

After changing my perspective, I showed up to the next practice with renewed enthusiasm. I had a long road ahead of me, but I knew that if I could stay mentally tough, I could get playing time on the varsity team eventually.

So I became one of the hardest workers on the team – knowing full well that I was capable of enduring anything at this point. 

The next year, I still wasn’t very good. But due to my work ethic, the coach started me on the junior varsity team over a more talented player. 

To most football players, starting on the junior varsity team in your junior year is nothing to be proud of. But to me, it was a huge small win. It was proof that I was on the right path because I was one step closer.

That small win catapulted me into a grueling off-season of training. It was my last year of high school, and my last chance to earn a spot on the varsity team. 

So I lifted weights every day.

I showed up to all optional training sessions.

And I focused all of my willpower on earning a starting position.

Then the week before our first game, the coach named me the starting defensive end. 

I made it. After all of the painful practices, the hours of training, and overcoming the urge to quit, I earned my place as a starter on the varsity team.

And that wasn't the end of the story.

Because our underdog team went on to win our first State Championship in over 25 years – an accomplishment I could never have dreamed of when I first moved to America.

 

 

 THE GREAT LESSONS FROM FAILURE

I wasn’t the only one who was in pain during sophomore year.

My parents saw that I was starting to hate football. They saw the size of the players I was up against and knew the role my coach was using me for. It pained them to see me come home from practice every night demoralized. 

That is why I am eternally grateful to them for talking me out of quitting. It would have been really easy for them to simply accept my wishes, tell me “well, you gave it your best shot,” and breathe easy as I took my seat in the stands.

But then I would have never learned two of the most important lessons of my life:

I am capable of handling failure.If I work hard and persevere, then amazing things are possible.

These are lessons that people have to learn through experience. I can tell you a hundred stories of failure and perseverance, but it will never truly stick with you until you prove to yourself that you can “take the punches” and keep moving forward. [1]

THE DOWNSIDE OF The SELF-ESTEEM Movement

Although the value of learning from failure can be applied to all of us, I directed this article to be about children because there is a self-esteem movement across the world that suggests kids are fragile, emotional, and incapable of handling failure. 

So we need to shelter them from failure. We need to constantly praise their results, tell them they're brilliant, and “give everyone a trophy.” [2]

To illustrate the downside of this movement, let’s take the story of Kobe Bryant. 

When he was twelve years old, Kobe was about to give up basketball forever. He had just completed his summer basketball camp and was going home a disgrace. 

Kobe didn’t score a single point. Not one jump shot. Not one free throw. Nothing. He was the worst player in the entire camp. Even worse, his father was a professional basketball player. 

Imagine the sense of failure that Kobe must have felt after that. He was only 12, he adored his father, and he must have felt like he let him down.

But then Kobe read about one of his heroes, Michael Jordan. He learned how Michael got cut from his high school basketball team, but didn’t quit. Getting cut motivated Michael to outwork everyone around him to prove his coach wrong.

When Kobe learned this, a fire was created inside of him that would never be put out. He wanted to work harder than everyone else for the rest of his basketball career—and he did.  [3]

The relentless work ethic he developed after that day became legendary. And because of it, Kobe will go down as one of the greatest players of all time.

Now imagine instead that Kobe’s parents wanted to shelter him from that failure. To do so, they demanded that he be given a trophy at the end of the camp. Or, even worse, they demanded the other kids in the camp allow Kobe to score in order to boost his self-esteem. 

What would have happened?

Undoubtedly Kobe would have felt better after the camp. But it wouldn’t have allowed him to feel the pain of failure, learn from it, and use it to motivate him to outwork everyone around him.

It’s tempting to build up your children’s confidence by praising their natural abilities and sheltering them from failure. It’s not easy to instill the value of learning from failure when they can’t fully grasp yet how it will help them.

That is why most parents choose the easy route. They choose to shelter them from failure, to ensure their feelings aren't hurt, and to give them a trophy for simply showing up.

You must fight against this temptation.

You must allow them to take chances, allow them to fail, and allow them to learn through their own experience that it is not the end of the world. They can get up, keep trying, and continue to learn and grow.

CONCLUSION

Nobody wants his or her kids to fail, but failure is a part of life.

The pain I felt on the football field was bad. I wanted it to end more than anything. But by persevering I proved to myself that I’m capable of persevering through hard times. And, in the end, the results were better than I could have ever expected.

Failing is tough. It hurts the self-esteem. But if your child learns how to deal with failure, it will give her the confidence to take risks, learn from mistakes, and persevere. And isn’t that what we wanted out of the self-esteem movement in the first place?

*Sources

How Louis C.K. Went From a Nobody to a Legend by Using This Simple Rule

Louis C.K. sat in his car, depressed.

He was 33 years old and just finished doing his standup routine at a Chinese restaurant.

That’s right. A Chinese restaurant!

A place where nobody even knew there was going to be a comedian, and many might actually have been annoyed by his presence.

He thought long and hard about finally giving up on his dream. He had been at it for 15 years and had little to show for it. The only gigs he could get were in places where people didn’t even want him!

But what else was he going to do?

He had been a comedian for the last 15 years. He had no college education, no business experience, and he had a family to provide for. Things were looking bleak. [1]

THE TURNING POINT

Then Louis heard one of his heroes, George Carlin, talking on the radio about his process for creating jokes. Every year, Carlin put out a new comedy special. And every year his special was funnier than the last!

But how did he do it?

Carlin said that after he finished his special for the year, he threw out all of his material. Whatever he made jokes about in his 2001 special, he could not use for his 2002 special.

That forced Carlin to think deeper. It forced him to be more creative about what’s funny in life. This helped him reach new audiences as he continued to expand his craft.

Every year Carlin got better because he never rested on his laurels. He started fresh and forced himself to improve.

When Louis heard this, he was astonished.  How could Carlin come up with new jokes every year? It took him 15 years to come up with this garbage material!

But he had nothing to lose. So why not start fresh like Carlin?

So he stopped making jokes about airline peanuts and the DMV, then went one level deeper.

He started making jokes about married life …

He started making jokes about  being a father …

He started making jokes about being a broke comedian …

Layer by layer he went deeper. Continuing to throw out last year’s jokes and start fresh with entirely new and even better material this year.

Then everything starting turning around for Louis!

It took him 15 years to make his way up to playing at Chinese restaurants,but after only 4 years of this method Comedy Central named him one of the 100 funniest standup comedians of ALL TIME! [2]

And still today his comedy special continues to get funnier.

WHY THE “CARLIN METHOD” WORKS

The “Carlin method” as I’ll call it, doesn’t just have the backing of 2 of the funniest comedians of all time, it is deeply rooted in the science of excellent performance.

There are 3 proven reasons the Carlin method works so effectively:

1. IT IS GREAT DELIBERATE PRACTICE

This method is an excellent form of deliberate practice. Deliberate practice involves pushing the limits of your current abilities and working on things you’re not great at yet. [3]

Louis wasn’t great at telling jokes about being a dad, being a husband, or being a struggling comic yet. So by practicing how to make those things funny, he was expanding his abilities as a comedian.

He pushed his comfort zone and entered the learning zone — where remarkable growth occurs.

To become truly great at something like Louis CK and George Carlin, you must be willing to push your comfort zone. You must practice things you’re not great at yet, and deal with the frustrations that come with that.

To begin your own deliberate practice, use the exercise at the bottom of this article.

2. IT MAKES YOU DIMENSIONAL MINDED

By following this method and throwing out his old material, Louis wasn’t just exploring different things that are funny, he was also opening his mind to the possibility that anything can be funny.

This converted his mindset from the conventional mind — where he setup rules in which some things are funny and others aren’t — into a dimensional mind — where there were no rules about what can and cannot be funny. [4]

That’s why he can make hilarious jokes about what many could never even think to consider funny. Sure, a lot of it is controversial, but he’s able to push the boundaries and still get laughs at the same time.

To become great, you must ignore the rules, become a lifelong learner, and open your mind to infinite possibilities.

3. IT CREATES NECESSITY

It is true what they say that necessity is the mother of invention. Whenever you create a goal that absolutely has to get done your brain will switch into extreme creativity mode.

Louis needed 1–2 hours of new material every single year. Because he had that deadline, his conscious and subconscious brain were always running — looking to find new funny things to fill the time.

Because he had a clear problem that HAD to be solved, he was hyper-focused and willing to solve it all costs.

You will be surprised the level of creativity and problem-solving you will have when something HAS to get done. When you leave yourself no retreat,you will instantly double your willpower and creativity. [5]

HOW I WILL USE THE CARLIN METHOD

Louis CK’s story opened my eyes to the infinite possibilities in front of me.

Willpower can be used in almost any domain. And with The Will of Heroescompleted and hitting bookshelves soon, it is time to throw out the principles I have already written about and dig to the “next layer”.

This means I will be shifting my focus from concepts that introduce willpower and how to reach your goals, to concepts like:

Overcoming addictions…

Willpower in the workplace…

Raising “willpowered” children…

And many more!

I am extremely excited about what I will learn and share with you over the coming years as I dive deeper into the science of willpower.

CONCLUSION

Louis CK spent the first 15 years of his comedy career getting nowhere. He had boring jokes, and was getting gigs in front of people who didn’t even care that he was there.

It wasn’t until he was willing to follow the “Carlin method” and create new material on a yearly basis that he really took off. After that, it only took 4 years to be named one of the 100 funniest comedians of all time.

You can use the Carlin method in your life by pushing your comfort zone, opening your mind, and leaving yourself no retreat in the pursuit of your goals. I plan to do that from now on, and I can’t wait to see what I create!

*Sources

The Willpower Secrets of the World's Greatest Heroes [Podcast]

*Published by Danny Flood on http://www.openworldmag.com/

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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Welcome to an exciting episode of the OpenWorld podcast! I have a very special treat for you guys today… all of you entrepreneurs and anyone interested in peak performance will love this interview.

I’m joined by Colin Robertson, researcher of performance psychology, and the owner of Willpowered.Co. Colin has spent the last 5 years researching the science behind how normal people have harnessed their willpower to achieve extraordinary success.

He claims that willpower is a science that he has the answers about what it takes to will yourself through the hard times and come out the other side victorious. He shares these simple, proven ways on his blog… and he’s going to dish a ton of great stuff on this interview.

He also used his willpower to successfully crowdfund his book – “The Will of Heroes” on Kickstarter, picking himself up when his campaign was teetering on the brink and crushing his goal.

Colin makes a compelling case that willpower is the secret ingredient to getting everything you want from life.

But what is willpower exactly? Is it a physiological, mental, emotional? Is willpower influenced by the music we listen to, or the people we associate with? I brought Colin on the show to help me pin this down.

We discuss weighty topics such as:

The power of perspective, and how to use it to light a psychological fire under youCase studies and examples of successful people – like JK Rowling – and how they willed themselves to their destiny despite everythingHow to break negative habits – and resist temptations more effectivelyVisualization and manifestation strategiesThe right foods to eat – to increase willpowerHow to stop negative feedback loops, and insert the thoughts / narrative that you want

Plus:

How Colin built a mailing lis of 37,000 subscribers – and wrote viral blog postsA simple technique that instantly increases the credibility of your blog – and gets authoritative sites like the Huffington Post to link to you (I can’t believe I haven’t been doing this)And much more!

Enjoy this excellent discussion with the one and only Colin Robertson!

How Your Optimism Can Hurt You - And What to Do About It

The test was simple.

The participants, all non-exercisers with the goal of adding workouts to their weekly routine, were asked to write down how many hours they planned to spend in the gym over the next 2 weeks to begin creating their exercise habit.

So each participant entered in the amount of time he or she planned to spend in the gym. Then after the 2 weeks were up, they would record how much time they actually spent in the gym.

After careful calculation, the participants planned to spend about 20 hours working out over the next 2 weeks.

You may have gone through a similar planning process to these participants at some point. Thus, you probably won’t be shocked when I tell you that the average time actually spent in the gym wasn’t even half of that!

The participants in the study only spent an average of about 8 hours working out during the 2-week period.

But that’s not the most shocking finding in the study. After the two weeks were up, the researchers were curious to see if people would learn from their behavior.

So they asked the participants to start fresh and plan how much time they would spend in the gym over the subsequent 2 weeks. Surely, they thought, people would realize what was realistic this time around and plan accordingly.

Nope.

Rather than learning from their past behavior, the participants planned to spend even more time in the gym! In their minds, the previous 2 weeks were an anomaly. And their “true selves” were going to show up and make it to the gym for 25 hours this time! 

As you can probably guess, they didn't even come close. [1]

The Planning Fallacy

This experiment reveals what researchers call “The Planning Fallacy”. We are incredibly optimistic by nature. So when we set plans, we overestimate our own abilities.

Psychologist Roger Buehler discovered this in 1994 when he did an experiment with psychology students. 37 of his students were asked to estimate how long it would take to finish their Senior Theses. [2]

They were to make 3 predictions:

1. If everything went as well as it possibly could – which the students predicted would take them about 27.4 days.

2. If everything went as poorly as it possibly could – which they predicted would take about 48.6 days.

3. What they thought would actually happen – which they believed would take 33.9 days.

Then they were to measure their predictions against how long it actually took them.

The average actual completion time was 55.5 days – a whole week longer than if everything went as poorly as it possibly could! 

Buehler theorized that the reason we do this is because we are all wishful thinkers. We want to believe that things will work out for the best, so even our worst planning scenarios aren’t that bad.

That is why despite a 40% divorce rate, newly weds believe they have a 0% chance of divorce; and despite a 30% chance of getting cancer, the average person only believes they have a 10% chance.

It's not that we don't believe that bad things like this can happen – we just believe that they will happen to other people, not us. [3]

How Your Optimism Can Hurt You

First, let me be clear, there are many proven benefits to being optimistic. Having a positive outlook will increase your generosity, your kindness, and your courage to take risks. 

However, optimism that leads to the planning fallacy is a recipe for disaster.

What do you think the chances are that those participants were able to establish their exercise habit after 4 consecutive weeks of not hitting their planned goals?

Slim to none.

They probably felt like failures with every planned workout missed – leading them to give up hope.

The worst part is that you can clearly see that the 20+ hours of exercise were not necessary. Had they planned on even doing 5 hours of exercise over the two-week period it would have been a big improvement over nothing!

Yet, they didn't see it that way. They were too optimistic and they set themselves up for failure.

No matter what your goal, you will have a natural desire to overestimate your ability to accomplish it. You will look at the result you want, the free time you have, and you will genuinely believe that "this time" you will summon the willpower to do it.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR OPTIMISM IN CHECK

Unfortunately, you can't just keep your optimism in check by telling yourself to "be realistic".

In a similar exercise planning study, researchers found that participants who were told to "be realistic" actually planned to spend more time in the gym than those who weren't given any message! [4] 

So what can you do to keep your optimism in check and actually be realistic? 

The one proven way to prevent yourself from being too optimistic about what you'll be able to do in the future is to look to the past. 

This is a strategy called "reference class forecasting", which is simply taking the results of the past and using them to plan for the future.

If the participants in the first study had used the first 2 weeks - where they exercised for 8 hours - to plan for the next 2 weeks by upping it to 9 or 10 hours, they would have used this method. And they would have had a much better shot at creating the habit!

This works because it helps you avoid the trap of thinking that the future is going to be “special”. 

We all have an idea that in the future we will have:

More time.

More energy.

More money.

More willpower.

The list goes on. But your future self is not a superhero. In fact, they're probably going to be pretty much the same as you are today. With a finite amount of time, a finite amount of money, and a finite amount of willpower. 

When you plan for the future, you need to understand that it will be much more like the past than your natural optimistic projections. [5]

Once you take that moment to be self-aware, then you will be in the right mindset to create a simple, realistic plan to execute on your goals - without killing yourself in the process.

Conclusion

You must understand that you are a member of an incredibly optimistic species.

This optimism has helped us dream big dreams and accomplish incredible things. But sometimes your natural optimism about the future can leave you feeling like a failure if you don’t live up to your own unrealistic expectations. 

To avoid this, you need to look to past results as the best predictor of the future. Then, if you end up doing better than you have in the past, it will give you a great sense of pride as you see real progress in your life. 

So don't set yourself up for failure. Look to the past, set your goals, then crush them.

*Sources

10 Strategies Used by People Who Achieve Their New Year's Resolutions

New Year’s resolutions….more than half of us make them, but only 8% of us achieve them!

That’s right. 92% of us fail our resolutions for the New Year (and I have been no stranger to that list). 

But rather than scorn humanity for our apparent lack of follow-through, I wanted to learn what exactly those 8% of successes do differently? 

Here are 10 strategies they use to reach their goals – and you can too! [1]

1.    SET 3 GOALS OR LESS

The biggest mistake people make with their resolutions is trying to take on every single goal they can think of all at once. 

Take this common list of resolutions from those who took part in the study above:

 Lose weightGet organizedSpend less and save moreExercise regularlyQuit smokingEnjoy life to the fullest!

Let’s assume that the person who made this list was not working on them before. So now he or she needs to find the time, energy, and willpower to get all of these things done at the same time!

Your willpower works like a muscle. It gets tired from overuse the same way that your legs get tired during a long run. You may be able to keep up the high pace for a few days, or even a few weeks, but eventually you’re going to burn out. [2]

That’s when you’re going to skip one day…then another…then another…and eventually you're going to slip right back into your old habits.

Do not feel that you need to improve all areas of you life at once. Research shows that those who are most successful have no more than 3 goals that they are working on at any one time.  [3]

So set as few as possible, and do not go over 3!

2. SET COMPLEMENTARY, NOT CONTRADICTORY GOALS

Let’s look at the list of goals above again.

Not only will it be hard to accomplish all of them given that you have a limited amount of willpower with which to work, but some of those goals actually contradict one another!

For example, when you quit smoking, your hunger that was once suppressed by cigarettes is suddenly going to come back. So now your goal of losing weight is going to be much harder.

Because it is much harder, you are going to feel more frustrated, which will increase your stress. The increased stress will make it harder to exercise, control your budget, and certainly enjoy life to the fullest.

So make sure you set goals that compliment one another.

If your goal is to exercise regularly and you want to change your diet at the same time, then allow yourself to eat a lot of healthy food that you actually enjoy. Because if you try to cut back on calories, you won't find the energy you'll need to make exercising a habit.

3. Eat Breakfast

Another huge mistake people make in trying to achieve their resolutions is skipping the most important meal of the day - breakfast. Beyond simply leading to greater health, breakfast provides your body with a chemical called glucose, which the brain uses as its "willpower fuel". [4]

Whether those who achieve their resolutions realize it or not, by eating breakfast, they were providing much needed fuel for their brain to use as willpower throughout the day. 

If you're someone who doesn't eat breakfast now, do not be intimidated. Although a healthy breakfast will provide you with more willpower, it is still better to eat something you enjoy instead of nothing. [4]

For a list of the best "willpowered" breakfast foods check out this list.

4. Work on Their Goals in the Morning

“Eat a live frog first thing in the morning and nothing worse will happen to you the rest of the day.” – Mark Twain

Those who are able to work toward their goals, create great habits, and ultimately stick with it until the end are those who eat their frog (work on their goal) first thing in the morning - even if they aren’t morning people. 

There are several reasons why the morning works best:

1.    Your willpower is the strongest in the morning

Like I mentioned before, your willpower is like a muscle. It gets exhausted as you use it throughout the course of the day.

Those who achieved their resolutions worked on them in the morning when they had the most willpower, not at night when they were drained.

2. You can create the right environment   

In the evening, you really have no idea what your circumstances will be. You may be tired, you may be stressed, you may want to inhale junk food, or chuck your gym bag out the window. In the morning, however, you can create an environment that will help you get your goals accomplished. 

You know that you will be tired and groggy, so what can you do to make waking up easier? To make putting on your gym shoes less intimidating? What incentives can you provide to "eat your frog" first?

Whatever it is, you can plan for it and create an environment for success beforehand. 

3. Life happens at night, not in the morning.

How many times have you been invited to a breakfast party at 6am?

How many times have you had to attend you kid's soccer game before school?

Life happens. You will have to stay late to work, you will have to go to PTA meetings after school, and your coworkers will invite you to a happy hour. These are all commitments that are tough to get out of with the simple reason, “I can’t I have to work on my goals today".

Luckily, life happens far less in the morning.

You simply will not have the same temptations to procrastinate your goals in the morning as you will in the evening. You won’t need to turn down other commitments; you just need to force your way out of bed!

5.    FOCUS ON CONSISTENCY, NOT INTENSITY 

Most people who set resolutions focus all of their energy on intensity. They want to make big progress, they want to get big results, and they want to make it happen NOW!

But those who achieve their resolutions don't try to get huge results through Herculean efforts in a short amount of time. They set long-term goals and focus on being incredibly consistent in achieving them.  [3]

There is no better example of this are those who set a writing goal.

The best writers are not the ones who stay up all night writing when they get a sudden burst of inspiration. The best writers are those who write every single day. [7]

Have patience in the pursuit of your resolutions. It is far better to achieve the goal after one year of small, consistent efforts. Rather than 2 weeks of intense efforts, followed by a subsequent crash.

6. Achieve Small Wins   

Let's assume that your goals for 2016 will require an entire year's worth of work to complete (they are New Year resolutions after all). If that's the case, then you will probably follow the typical script.

On January 1st, you come up with your goal and get a spark of energy and excitement as you begin to think about the positive changes that are coming!So you get up early, eat healthy, resist temptations, and are a productive machine for the first week.Then you burn yourself out, feel exhausted, and get depressed by just how far you are from completing your goal.Then each trip to the gym, healthy meal, and hour of productivity seem insignificant compared to the huge goal you have for the year, so you take a break for a day.Finally, one break leads to another break....then you're right back to your old habits.

The human brain gets overwhelmed easily. When it doesn't see an easy path from point A to point B, it will motivate you to procrastinate. [5]

You can overcome this by forgetting about a huge goal for 2016, and instead focusing on achieving small wins. By focusing on small wins, your brain can see a much clearer path to achieving your goal. [6] 

So don't focus on learning a new language, just study for 1 hour. 

Don't focus on going on a 90-day diet, focus on eating healthy today.

Don't focus on getting a promotion, just show up early to the office this week.

With each hour, day, or week that you achieve your small wins, your confidence will continue to grow. Then you will be even more motivated to achieve the next small win, and the next one after that. 

Eventually, you will be 3, 6, 9 months in and more confident than ever that you can do this. 

7.   GET THROUGH THE MIDDLE

It is easy to find motivation on December 31st when you are visualizing what life will be like when you accomplish your goals. You visualize your results, you visualize your progress, you visualize where you want to be, and you get excited about your plan to get there!

It is also easy to find motivation when you nearing the completion of your goal. You've accomplished a lot and you are confident that you will be able to see it through to the finish. You may even work harder as you see how close you are to the finish line!

But in order to get there, you need to get through the middle. 

You need to find motivation when the excitement has worn off, and the goal is still weeks or months away. That is when one day of progress seems completely insignificant in comparison to the higher goal, so if you don’t "feel good” then you face big temptations to procrastinate.

This is when the true achievers set themselves apart from the rest of the pack. They embrace the boredom of working toward a goal and find ways to enjoy the process for its own sake. 

So understand that you will have a letdown in the middle of the journey and find ways to motivate yourself through it. Because it will get easier.

8.    UNDERSTAND THAT IT WILL GET EASIER

The middle of the journey is like the 2nd Act of a great movie.

The 2nd Act is when the protagonist faces an extraordinarily hard challenge and their character is tested. They must overcome this huge level of adversity in order to achieve their happy ending in the 3rd Act.

Many people believe that the challenges they are facing in the middle of the journey will last forever. So once they hit the feeling of being tired, unmotivated, and demoralized by how far they are away from achieving their result, they give up.

Understand that these moments do not last forever. These moments are the ones that test how bad you really want something. If you can simply get through these times, taking it day-by-day, things will get easier!

You will grow more confident with each passing day and begin to feel and act more like your ideal self. With each day you will continue to prove to yourself that you can do this.

9.    Track Your Progress

We have a natural desire for self-improvement.

This stems from the days that our ancestors were living in tribes. Tribes were safe, so we wanted to ensure that we had a secure spot within it. So we began to check our own behavior and compare it against the best members of the tribe.

This gave us motivation to set higher standards for ourselves and try to live up to them. You can tap into this natural motivation by monitoring your progress. [6]

When you track how you eat this week, you'll have a natural desire to eat better next week.

When you track your miles run this week, you'll have a natural desire to run farther next week.

What gets measured gets improved. Take advantage of your inner drive to improve by tracking your progress. 

You can find tools and strategies to track your progress in this article.

10. Do Not Procrastinate

If there is one point I want you to take away from this list, it's this one. 

Procrastination is the most slippery of all slopes. Once you give yourself a break for today and tell yourself that you'll make up for it tomorrow, you set the precedent that it's okay to take days off.

So you take off another day...then another...then another.

Soon you're left feeling stressed and helpless as days of progress that you might have made are all gone. Then the next thing you know, all of your aspirations for the new year are gone as well. 

Of course, there are going to be days when you're tired, sick, or cannot work towards your goals in the way that you hoped. But on those days, you must summon the willpower to do something.

If you can't workout for an hour as you planned, cut it back to 30 or even 15 minutes! 

If you can't write 1,000 words today like you planned, just write 100! 

If you can't stick to your planned diet today, eat at least 1 healthy meal.

There is likely no rush to complete your goal. Take your time, but make sure every day you are making at least some progress. That progress, no matter how small, will add up. And eventually you will get there!

CONCLUSION

There is no secret to achieving a New Year's resolution. There is simply a long journey. And if you have the focus to keep less than 3 goals, work on them every day, and fight through the middle when they get hard and boring, eventually you will get there!

That is, of course, unless you procrastinate.

Sources

Statistic Brain. (2015, December 27). http://www.statisticbrain.com/new-yea...
Baumeister, R., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., Tice, D. (1998) Ego Depletion: Is the Active Self a Limited Resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1252-265.
Baumeister, R. (2004). Handbook of self-regulation: Research, theory, and applications. New York: Guilford Press.
Gailliot, M., Baumeister, R., DeWall, C., Maner, J., Plant, E., Tice, D., ... Schmeichel, B. (2007). Self-control Relies On Glucose As A Limited Energy Source: Willpower Is More Than A Metaphor. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 325-336.
Tice, D., & Baumeister, R. (1997). Longitudinal Study of Procrastination, Performance, Stress and Health: The Costs And Benefits Of Dawdling.Psychological Science, 454-458.
Duval, S., & Wicklund, R. (1972). A theory of objective self awareness. New York: Academic Press.
Baumeister, R., & Tierney, J. (2011). Willpower: Rediscovering the greatest human strength. New York: Penguin Press.