5 strategies for success instead of making new years resolutions.

You might think that as coaches we love making new year’s resolutions.  New year, new you, that sort of thing.  But you’d be wrong!

In our recent blog we encouraged you to create your goals for 2023 and now we are here to help you turn your dreams into reality.

The stats say that approximately 80% of new year's resolutions fail.  This may be for a myriad of reasons; maybe we were overwhelmed because we wrote so many resolutions to change every aspect of our life that they weren’t realistic, or maybe life just got in the way and we forgot.

Making change is hard because we are all creatures of habit and we are wired to be change-averse; our brain thinks it’s safer.

January is grey, the twinkly lights have been packed away for another year, the credit card bills drop into our inbox and we can feel a bit ‘meh.’  It doesn’t have to be like this and we are sharing our 5 top ways for you to be motivated to make last changes and achieve your vision for 2023.

Here’s 5 ways to drive your success: -

1.     Be clear about your goals.

If you have clear, written goals (if not see our previous blog here: then you can make sure that your are working towards them by chunking your goals into small, bite-size tasks.

You might have ‘refresh website’ on your list for 2023 but that isn’t going to happen unless you break it down.  Instead you might have rewrite ‘About Us’ page on your list and then you need to schedule a time in your diary for it to happen.  Book it in as if it was a client meeting, then you can’t priories something else instead. Once you’ve done that move onto the next task which might be update photos or create a video for the home page etc etc.

“Great things are not done by impulse, but by a series of small things brought together.”  Vincent Van Gogh

2.     Rather than trying to change EVERYTHING just choose one thing.

Choose one easy thing to start with.  Make a list.  Cross things off as you do them. 

Scientists have shown that the experience of task completion leads to a release of the pleasurable chemical dopamine in our brain.  Dopamine is a neurotransmitter which creates feelings of success, gratification, and happiness. This release of dopamine not only makes us feel good but also is a motivator for us to continue completing tasks and extending that pleasant feeling.

If you can focus on making the same change consistently, it will become a habit and habits lead to lasting change.

3.     Try ‘Motivation Pairing’

Motivation pairing is where you add a new (maybe dreaded) habit to an existing (enjoyable) habit to remind yourself or motivate yourself to remember the change.  Gretchen Rubin talks about this in her book ‘Better than Before’.

An example might be that if you keep putting off logging your receipts or doing your book-keeping then you’d do it whilst listening to your favourite podcast.

When you pair the dreaded task with the enjoyable task you also ring fence a specific time for completing it which also helps to prevent procrastination.  Win, win!

4.     Use reminders

At RWC we love a post it note!  Place them strategically so you can’t forget what you need to do.

Alternatively set an alarm on your phone for a particular time, change the label so you remember what the alarm was set for and use a different chime, too.  Just like Pavlov’s dogs (!) you’ll become conditioned to the new habit in no time.

5.     Evaluate your progress and celebrate success, however small.

At the end of the day, week, and month reflect on how your small changes are impacting on your yourself and your business.   Don’t beat yourself up for not doing things, give yourself a reward for the changes you have made and tasks you’ve completed.

You may need to tweak your strategy as you go but we are all learning and finding out what works for us.  So do more of what works!

“The key to realizing a dream is to focus not on success but significance - and then even the small steps and little victories along your path will take on greater meaning.”

Oprah Winfrey

Why not start on your victory board for 2023, too? 

We would love you to share your stories with us!  What are you finding works for you in 2023? 

If you’d like a chat, please book in for a free taster coaching session today