Why I Am in the 8% Of People Who Achieve Their Annual Goals and How You Can Be Too!

By Natasha C Dewhirst.

We head out of the gate most New Year excited, ready with our new planner, goals, vision board, and affirmations. We can feel this is going to be our year.

Fast forward to April, and the planner isn’t being used, goals have been shifted into the next quarter, and suddenly you can’t remember why you were excited in January! Then we become stuck in the ‘why me’ ‘what am I doing wrong’, avoid our work and decide to wing the rest of the year.

If this sounds familiar - you are not alone. 92% of New Year’s resolutions fail before February.

Gyms become empty, and we have resorted to our old coping mechanisms, a nice bar of chocolate thank you, whilst lamenting our weakness, taking it as a sign we aren’t cut out for fitness, entrepreneurship etc.

The hard truth is that willpower is not enough to achieve our goals, nor is motivation.

We are creatures of habit, comforted by the repetition of the familiar regardless of whether or not the familiar is good for us. It’s not just our habits that are on repeat -no, it’s the continual thought loops that replay like Groundhog day in our mind 95% of every day.

Now add in our minds hardwiring for negativity bias. We start to see evidence that our goals are awful and were never going to work, “just like when we were 19years old and what a disaster that was”, and quickly decide it’s time for another bar of chocolate.

The insanity is that year on year we somehow expect this to change. “Santa, I’ve been a good authentic female this year, and all I want is………….”

You may have been told that affirmations are what you need, so you repeat these like a thing possessed but despite the speed of your convictions, that little voice still sneaks in the gaps and tells you, “no, you really can’t, remember how bad you were at …… just have another bar of chocolate, and you will feel better, there there.”

So what should an empowered entrepreneur that doesn’t believe in Santa do?

We need to shift our approach from making plans and decisions from our conscious minds. If these are safe or too ambitious, our subconscious mocks from the sidelines, and you don’t progress. Instead, we need to harness the power of the subconscious mind so we can smash our goals.

Firstly we need to get ready for some discomfort. Change is unfamiliar, so our minds will start to complain and plant imaginary symptoms to entice you back to the pleasant comfort of your sofa with the delicious chocolate bar where it is sure you are safe, and it can relax.

At this point, we need to take back control of that little voice and command it to do what we want it to do realistically. Affirmations are often so far removed from our reality that our subconscious mind rejects them instantly. Realistic self-talk is the winner for our minds.

“I might feel uncomfortable doing ‘x’, but I trust that I have all of the skills and connections I need to make it happen.”

Now keep telling your mind that you have everything you need, and it will start to believe you, and the action you are trying to take will become familiar. One point to you, zero points for your subconscious.

This also works in reverse, so you can start making sitting on the settee and eating chocolate unfamiliar “I love taking action and following my goals. When I sit on the sofa and eat chocolate, I feel like a loser” Another point to you, still zero points for your subconscious.

The game-changer for taking your success to the next level is visualisation. Your mind always believes what you tell it, so start giving it helpful suggestions and seeing yourself achieving your goals. Consider when you have completed your goals what will be different for you? What does this feel like? Will you look differently, hold yourself differently? Start to focus on this daily, and your mind will seek out the opportunities you need to make this a reality.

I write my clients an audio using the power of neuroplasticity to rewire their subconscious to align with what they want to achieve in the year. Listening to it daily for at least 21 days means their neural pathways can shift and what they want becomes possible by feeding the mind empowering commands daily. It’s like having superpowers.

If you struggle with overwhelm, why not try one of my Neuro Belief Audios to see how easy it is to rewire your mind and stay in control during 2022.

With love,

Natasha C Dewhirst ARTT, CL.Hyp, BA Hons
National Council of Psychotherapists

Natasha is the CEO of Lead from Within Therapy and Coaching, Founder of the Learning to Be Institute and Creator of Burnout Reset and Recovery a 6-month program combining the most advanced techniques in psychology, personal development and somatic therapy, enabling hundreds of women globally to short cut their healing, freeing them from burnout, childhood trauma and stress so they become the emotionally resilient woman they were born to be.

Natasha runs a global practice from the U.K where she lives with her 2 children.