“Don’t bring your old self into the new year.” You’ve probably heard that advice. However, you may not understand why doing so is imperative for achieving your goals this year. You also might not have any idea how to leave your old self behind—or create a new one.
Let’s keep this simple…
The person you were last year is only capable of achieving the goals you accomplished in the past 12 months. That self cannot get different results.
If you didn’t accomplish your goals last year, that’s because the person you were being didn’t have the ability to do so. You didn’t have the mindset and habits to support such achievements.
If you change who you are “being,” you become capable of achieving those goals. You can choose to be someone who has the mindset and habits that allow you to achieve your new goals.
Do that, and you leave your old self behind as you enter the new year as someone new.
Sounds simple, right? Actually, it is.
Bringing Your Old Self into the New Year
When a new year approaches, you may feel a natural inclination to reflect on the past year. Maybe you record your successes and shortfalls.
Then, you try to determine how you need to improve so the new year is better than the last year—so you are better in the next 12 months. You create a list of what you need to do to achieve your goals.
Commonly, this leads to resolutions aimed at improving yourself. You decide to work out consistently, finally write the book you’ve been talking about, save money, wake up earlier, or stop eating sugar.
The reason most people don’t keep their New Year’s resolutions is simple: They carry limitations, failures, and negativity from the previous year into the new one. The cycle of old habits, mindsets, and experiences prevents you from stepping into a more empowered version of yourself.
You bring your old self into the New Year, and that person doesn’t have the ability to keep those resolutions, let alone achieve the goals you’ve set for yourself.
How to Keep Your Resolutions
This strategy doesn’t work because you haven’t answered the most important question: Who do I need to be to achieve my goals this year?
This query should be preceded or followed by: Who was I last year, and how did being that “type” of person help or hinder my attempts to achieve my goals?
For example, if you were the type of person who procrastinates, you can admit that being a procrastinator did not support the achievement of your goals.
When you identify the type of person you need to be or the characteristics you must have to achieve your goals, you can choose to adopt that identity. You realize your power to change yourself and your results.
For example, maybe you need to be someone who takes action. Decide to be that person—rather than a procrastinator.
Then explore the habits and mindsets of an action taker. It’s likely they have a habit of feeling a sense of necessity or urgency when taking on tasks. If they thought, “I want to put that off until tomorrow or next week,” they would counter that thought with “There’s no time like the present to take action toward my goal.”
You likely realize that an action taker has the mindset and habits to achieve their goals, and a procrastinator does not. And you can choose to be that person—or to take on whatever identity will most help you achieve your new year goals.
Or you can choose to remain the same and get the same results this year as you did last year.
How to Adopt a New Self
Adopting a new self for the new year is simple. Choose to be the type of person who can achieve your goals. Decide to take on a new identity that supports your desire to accomplish something in the new year.
When you make that decision, you become that person. Right at that moment, you change.
Say, “I am now [blank].” Fill in the blank with a descriptive term of the type of person who can keep your resolutions or achieve your goals. For instance, if your goal is to write a book this year, you might declare, “I am a writer.”
What do writers do? What habits do they have? They write consistently. Maybe they write daily or weekly. But they write, and that makes them writers.
A writer doesn’t wonder, “Should I write today?” They likely don’t even ask themselves, “Do I feel inspired to write today?”
Why? Writers don’t ever ask that question of themselves. Their mindset is: “I’m a writer; therefore, I write daily.” If they did ask that question, the answer would always be the same: “Of course I will write today. That’s what I do. I’m a writer. And I write whether I’m inspired or not.”
Choosing a new identity that supports the achievement of your goals equates to bringing a new self into the new year. Be the person—the new self—that can keep your resolutions.
Remember, your old self can only achieve what it achieved last year. It can’t achieve anything different because it only has the habits and mindset to create what it previously created.
When you choose to be someone different—to take on a new identity, you create a new self. Bring that self into the new year, and you’ll get very different results.
Who do you need to be this year to achieve your goals and keep your resolutions? Tell me in a comment below. And please share this post with those who may benefit from reading it.
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Image courtesy anatolik1986.
