5 Tips for Resolution Sorcery

New Years is upon us, and many people, myself included cannot resist the urge to make resolutions. I talk a lot about goal setting in Strategic Sorcery, but resolutions are not just goals, they are the goals that go against the grain of our habitual tendencies, our prior experiences, and even sometimes societies will. In short a proper resolution is a goal that requires special resolve. While the energy of new years is great for making resolutions, linking yourself to the renewal of new years necessarily links you to everyone else who is making resolutions – thus the huge boost of pep and determination. Unfortunately since studies show that about 92% of people FAIL at keeping their resolutions – you are also linked to those failures.

I have kept resolutions in the past, and failed at resolutions in the past. Here are 5 pieces of advice for succeeding at your New Years Resolution.

1. AVOID IDENTITY COLLAPSE:

This is the big one. When we link our identity to our success of failure at a certain thing, we risk collapsing that identity at the first sign of failure or fatigue. If you are quitting smoking and have built yourself up as a “non-smoker” from that day forward, then a week later when you light up, that identity collapses and you revert back to smoking full-stop.

You can avoid identity collapse by simply acknowledging from the outset that there will likely be falls from grace. That you are a person in a process, not someone who suddenly changed overnight.

2. DON’T BE EASY ON YOURSELF:

Of course, if you follow the above, it can lead you into a trap of being easy on yourself. The keys to avoid this are specificity and accountability.

Be specific about what you want to attain. Not just that you don’t smoke, but how long and how are you weening yourself. Not just that you lose weight but how much, and through whgatr means? What gets measured gets managed.

Accountability is scarier because you are putting yourself on the line to someone else. You are choosing a person, or a group of people to report to. Someone who will KNOW if you failed. Some people suggest giving them money to donate to a horrible cause should you fail, but this is a little over-board to my mind.

3. ONE THING AT A TIME.

Remember, resolutions are not just goals. You should have many goals for the new year: financial, romantic, social, magical, etc; but you should only have ONE resolution. Don’t make resolutions to lose weight, save money, quit smoking, take up yoga, and have better sex in 2017. Pick one,  or two at the max. Thats it.

4. SET UP YOUR LIFE TO SUPPORT YOUR RESOLVE:

Studies show that people who succeed at resolutions are those that spend the least amount of willpower on it. They spend the least amount of willpower by controling their environment and the people they surround themselves with. Keep only good food in the house. Make sure you don’t carry extra money that you can buy junk food or smokes with. Automate your savings and investments from your direct deposit or bank account directly. Most of all manage the company you keep: spend more time with those that support your resolve, and less with those who don’t. Avoid those who would undermine you as much as possible.  This may involve distancing yourself from friends for a while. but it is what it is. Make your environment support your goal, don’t expose yourself to the triggers and materials that will have you breaking your resolution.

5. USE SORCERY.

Not just a spell to lose weight or quit smoking (that results in dysentery or lung cancer) but STRATEGIC Sorcery. Make a plan that will work without magic, then use Sorcery to make sure that it does. That’s the essence of how its done.