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Resolutions - have you failed already?

22/01/2014

I recently came across some interesting American statistics about New Year’s resolutions. It got me thinking – how do you make a resolution stick? Who is most successful, and why?

45% of Americans usually make New Year’s Resolutions – and only 8% are usually successful in achieving their resolutions. 25% of people fail within the first week! People who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don’t explicitly make them. Some of the top New Year’s resolutions for 2014 are: Lose Weight, Get Organised and Enjoy Life to the Fullest.

Although it is obvious that most people are making New Year’s resolutions in respect to their personal lives, perhaps business leaders could learn some valuable lessons from these statistics, before making business resolutions of their own.

resolutions-2011

By now, we have probably all heard of the positive change forecast for NZ’s “rock star” economy in 2014 – as much as 3.3% growth this year (compared to trend growth of 2.5%). Business confidence is stronger now than it has been since the beginning of the global financial crisis.

But this kind of rapid economic acceleration can bring problems as well, and businesses need to be focused and equipped to keep up with the changes and make the most of the opportunities presented to them. 2014 would seem the perfect time to make some business resolutions.

So how can we learn from the 92% of people who failed to keep their resolutions?

  1. The first tip is to be explicit. Write down your resolutions, talk about them with your staff and customers and generally make it known what you aim to achieve.
  2. The second key tip is to be specific. The problem with most of the personal resolutions made was that they were too vague.

According to a recent survey, some of the resolutions on the minds of NZ business owners include: overseas expansion, recruiting good staff, using and harnessing technology, learning from last years mistakes, and not trying to be all things to all people!

Once you have decided on your goal, break it down into achievable steps, timeline each stage of the process, and get to work on making your resolutions a success!

by Julie Baxendine

P.S. I haven't failed on my personal resolutions yet, but I haven't made any! But we do have an exciting list of business resolutions for Intepeople that will create success for our clients.

Whakatū | Nelson

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