This upcoming year, many of us are going to make a New Years’ resolution, but only to discover that weeks or months down life’s road, we failed to keep it. Why is this so, why do we find it so challenging to keep our New Years resolutions? The problem is not our commitment, but our thinking and process in keeping that commitment.
A Resolution is Not a Commitment
The simple truth is that a resolution is nothing more than a decision to do or not to do something. It’s not a commitment, a commitment is a state; a state in which you take action, while a resolution is nothing more than a decision to take action, it’s not the act of commitment. We must distinguish and understand the difference between the two. In fact, the word resolution actually means to resolve or fix.
Decision-Making
In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process, resulting in the selection of a course of action among several alternative possibilities. It is the process of identifying and choosing alternatives based on our values, preferences, and beliefs. From this definition, we can affirm that a decision is the process of selection, based on our belief and value system, it is not a commitment. However, if you want a positive result and outcome of our resolutions, we must think in terms of transformation.
Transformation
The process of transformation begins within the mind and flowed to the heart, and it is in the heart where transformation bares its fruit. The Bible states that we are to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2). The renewing signifies a continuous process, and not a one time event, but a progressive process, nor does it happen overnight, rather it’s a daily and continuous act. The process of renewing the mind is a daily activity, and must be done if we are to achieve our committed resolution. I use a process that I call the transformation cycle to assist me in renewing my mind and holding onto my commitments. It’s six simple steps that evolves over time.
Transformation Cycle
Identify; Identify the area(s) in your life that you want to transform, this is the first step, I call it the ID/IC principle, in other words, you need to identify it, before you can see it, this is where affirmation starts.
Write it down; I cannot express the importance of writing your commitment(s) down and reviewing them often, there is something about seeing them in print; it creates an intrinsic motivation value.
Make a plan; After writing them down, outline a simple strategy to action, list down the steps you are going to take, and commit to performing your commitments/goals.
Set goals: Now that you have a plan, begin outlining goals to accomplish it. The goals must be realistic, time-bound, and measurable.
Track & measure performance; You don’t know how far you come to achieving your results if you don’t measure them, I recommend a simple chart to document your progress.
Document what you have learned; I’ve experienced that this is an essential step within the transformation cycle, because if you don’t learn from your experiences, then how are you to improve? I personally keep a journal that I use every day to write what I learn, think, and experience each day.
Repeat the cycle; the cycle then is repeated; this time, edit, modify, or expand on your original commitment, and adjust your plans if necessary, then realign then with your goals, document your performance and what you learned and start the cycle over again. Repeating the cycle will guide you through the ID/IC process and assist you in meeting your resolution commitment(s).
The transformation cycle is not a formula or recipe for success; instead, it’s a tool to assist in ensuring I’m taking the actions to hold onto my commitments. I will be expanding on the transformation cycle later this year in a future article and share a couple of success stories from those who have used it.
In summary, there is no transformation without affirmation; you need to believe that you can achieve your goals, for it to have foundation, the ID/IC principle. The underlying reasoning we don’t keep our resolutions, commitments, and promises are not that we don’t intend to keep them, rather that we don’t believe in ourselves to achieve them. You need to believe in achieving, it’s transformation through affirmation. Let this be your year of transformation.