Susan DeMersseman shares how she plans to accomplish her New Year’s resolutions.
New Year’s resolutions often involve a page that holds a list of goals, ones we are “resolute “about accomplishing. But why do so few of those goals become accomplishments? I believe it’s because each of those goals needs its own page with the goal on the bottom and a sequential list of all the obstacles moving up to the top. I call it the “yeah but list.” That short phrase describes what often gets in the way of accomplishing the goal.
As a psychologist, I’ve sometimes worked with people who blamed procrastination for not accomplishing resolutions. Another possibility is that they did not foresee the obstacles on the way to that goal. I found that a simple strategy that might increase the chances of completion was creating a path of concrete steps, each a response to a “yeah but.”
For example, one woman shared her reappearing goal of getting the bathroom remodeled. It started with: “Get the bathroom redone.” The first yeah but: “Yeah but I, can’t do that until I get the name of a good contractor.” Next step up, “Get the name of a good contractor.”
You get the idea. It’s a simple exercise in obstacle identification often expressed in the “yeah buts” that hold us back. The result is a page of specific actions, best if the top includes something one can do right away.