How are your New Year's resolutions coming along? 

Are you still doing it?

Or did you give up?

If you gave up, I'm sure you know there are many people like you but, let's be honest, you only want to be part of that group if you truly do not care about your goal or changing something in your life. 

In the last post, we discussed rewording your resolution so that WHAT you are trying to achieve is more compelling and personal to you. 

It helps you stop and say "Damn straight that's MY goal! Now watch me get it!"

Unfortunately, defining the What is not enough. You need the reason Why. 

Last week we used the example of someone trying to lose 50 pounds and reframed the goal to serve the purpose of being healthier overall so that Jack could prevent having another heart attack.

When there are real personal stakes involved, a goal becomes much more important and you become much more likely to pursue it.

Your Task

Here is what you do. Once you have followed last week's instructions to define the goal in more succinct and personal terms, answer this question:

Why does that thing matter to me? Why do I care so much about that singular thing?

Such a simple question but it trips up so many people. It takes more than a second of self reflection so many people do not come up with the Why and they subsequently fail their resolution.

Taylor Wilkins, Work Hive's own community manager, has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs and 9-5 workers answer this question about their professional goals. He says, 

"It's astounding how many people go to work every day and do not understand why they do it, why they work that job, and what about that job is even interesting to them. Entrepreneurs naturally have a lot of passion for their industry or cause, and can tell me why they are starting the business (what world change they hope to serve) but they are often stopped in their tracks when I ask 'Why do you care about doing that, though? Why does it have to be YOU that addresses that issue?' This stops them because they have to dig down even deeper inside of themselves and identify what truly drives them. People have a hard time doing that."

These questions are powerful for entrepreneurs and other professionals, but they can be applied to every area of one's life.

• Why do you care about exercising every morning?
• Why do you care about drinking at that particular bar on the weekends?
• Why do you choose the kinds of vacations that you do?
• And of course, why do you care about the goals you choose to set?
• If you choose to lose 50 pounds, why do you care enough to lose 50 pounds? What about losing that weight is unique to your life and health?

If you answer this question about your New Year's resolution and you realize that it is not somehow about you or serving your wellbeing, go back to the What and start again. 

We would rather you stop and make the resolution more appropriate to you than go on with a resolution that you will fail to achieve.