The New Year is right around the corner and with year-end planning underway, you’re probably mapping out what you want to accomplish in the next 12 months ahead.
Whether you’re resolving to leave your dead-end job, speak up more in meetings or finally get started on the side projects you’ve been putting off, there’s one indisputable truth that’s impossible to ignore: change is hard.
Nearly one-half of Americans make New Year’s resolutions, but just 8% follow-through and accomplish their goals.
Most of us are familiar with the cycle: You’re jazzed in January only to find yourself derailed and demotivated within a few weeks. You beat yourself up for failing to achieve your full potential despite your best intentions.
But creating deep, lasting change is less about willpower and more about designing smart, effective goals.
You don’t have to settle for average for yet another year. Try this new method to set New Year’s resolutions that create real results.
Turn Resolutions Into Questions
Asking questions and then answering them–instead of making statements–is a more effective method for sticking to your promises, research finds.
Enter: the “Questolution“.
Instead of pledging to start a business in the New Year, it would be more effective to ask “How might I go about getting my first client?” or “What commitments might prevent me from going all in?”
This type of solution-oriented inquiry has been shown to produce consistent, significant changes in a variety of contexts from exercise and eating healthier to voting and gender stereotyping.
Why It Works
A question is a puzzle. It prompts a psychological response. Once question has been raised, the mind almost can’t help trying to solve or answer it.
By posing your resolution in the form of a question rather than a statement, you begin to engage with it. Your brain goes to work breaking down the problem, sequencing next steps and creating a path to success.
Questions spark creative, flexible thinking. Embracing challenges with curiosity helps liberate from a perfectionist mindset and worrying about the “right” way we “should” go about achieving our goal.
Questolutions For Success
Asking ambitious, yet actionable, questions can shift the way you think—and can serve as a catalyst to bring about change. They can help you get unstuck and rediscover momentum in your business or career.
