New Year’s Resolutions for Marketing Leaders

After spending quality time this holiday season with family steeped in meals, gifts and traditions, many people will be prepared to make bold, sweeping changes in their lives. Most of you will take stock of your year and make a declarative statement of their intentions for the year to come.

A desire to be healthier and richer are certainly great goals, but knowing that over three-quarters of those who embark on these goals are going to fail, what’s a person to do?

Don’t make resolutions.

There’s a science to success when it comes to achieving goals and making life changes — whether on January 1st or any other time of year.

1. Know Your Why. For a resolution to stick, it has to be aligned with your core values. We all want to look better or get richer, but your resolutions have to go beyond superficial desires and connect with what truly matters most to you. In other words, you have to “Know your why” and feel truly passionate about the goals you set for yourself.
2. Be Specific. Resolutions to ‘design the best marketing message, make a stellar team, eat better, get fitter’ are doomed for failure because they lack specificity. The more specific you are, the more likely you will be able to succeed.
3. Don’t Just Think It, Ink it! A Stanford University study found that when people wrote down their goal, it increased the probability of them achieving it by over 70%. But don’t just write down the specific goal, write down how you will feel when you’ve accomplished it.
4. Design Your Environment. Never underestimate the power of your environment to support or sabotage your success. Design your environment so that it’s hard NOT to do what you resolved. Create a progress chart, recruit a cheer squad among your family and friends, find someone to hold you accountable, etc. etc.
5. Narrow Your Efforts. Trying to do too many things at once can make you so unfocused that you just bounce around like Tigger on Red Bull, not quite sure which direction you are going. Set yourself up for success and start with JUST ONE MAJOR UNDERTAKING come January 1st. Then break that goal down into small bite size steps. Small steps, strong start!
6. Focus On The Process. It’s easy to get caught up in an initial wave of enthusiasm, only to come crashing down when your initial efforts don’t produce immediate and amazing results. So focus on the process itself, and develop greater competence of the actual activity, habit or skill you want to acquire.
7. Forgive Your Failures. Your setbacks and failures will not define your success in the year ahead or any year. HOW YOU RESPOND WILL. If you happen to mess up, lose your resolve, press the snooze button or revert to a familiar well-practiced behavior, don’t beat up on yourself.