If you’re someone who likes to start the new year with resolutions, you are in good company. According to a 2019 Inc.com article, roughly 60 percent of us make New Year’s resolutions. Unfortunately, the percent of people who achieve their resolutions is less than 10 percent. Whether or not you are a person who starts the new year with resolutions, we all want 2022 and each new year to be a year of personal and professional growth and fulfillment. How can we make it so? The first step is to change how we approach our goals and pay attention to what works best for our own style.
Resolutions are about getting better, whether it’s increasing your level of fitness, saving money, completing a major work or home project. It boils down to setting goals and working to achieve them. There is no question that we need to know our goals, what we’re working toward, how and where we want to be to be by the end of that new year. To get there, we must focus on what we do day to day. That’s why performance expert James Clear suggests a different approach to making resolutions. In Clear’s book Atomic Habits, he calls habits the compound interest of self-improvement. Comparing habits to the impact compound interest has on money, he said if we concentrate on making sure we’re intentional about our daily habits, the impact of them multiplies as they are repeated over time.
Whatever your outcome goals are — mastering a new skill, excelling in a sport, achieving a weight loss goal, or completing a major work project – – – they’ll be achieved not by wishing but by doing. It will be a repetition of daily habits that as time progresses will compound and move you to the natural outcome that is your goal. It’s the things we do consistently each day that will get us the outcomes we’re seeking with our New Year’s resolutions. This year instead of what you won’t do or what you’re going to give up, write out the habits you will adopt that when consistently done will bring you the results you
desire. Knowing yourself and how you respond to habits and routines will help you make those desired habits stick. Your DISC style gives you insight into how best to approach developing your own Atomic Habits.
D Style
You prioritize Results, and you like the feeling of Achievement that comes from those results. You’re continually looking for challenges and opportunities. You enjoy solving problems and don’t shy away from tough deadlines and competitions. Use this tenacious competitive spirit to your advantage when tackling changing your habits. Structure the habit as a competition with an accountability partner or tie the habit to
solving a problem. This will motivate you to hang in especially midway through the changes. D styles like to take, so have a specific step to take right away to get your habit started.
I Style
You put a high priority on Enthusiasm and are perpetually Optimistic. You need to view your plan to change habits as positive – no comparing pros and cons. It’s focusing on the pros and focusing on the ones that excite you most. I styles also love to take action, so you’ll want to get started on your habit changes right away. Half steps don’t work as well for I styles, so consider taking one habit at a time to work on rather than several. You can then go all in on one habit instead of half-stepping several habits.
S Style
You value Support and Stability. Lean into your desire to help others as motivation to make changes to your daily habits. Write out the habit you want to adopt and how it will benefit others around you — your co-workers, family, and friends. And take time to plan for a more gradual change in your habits. Half steps can be great; for your S style half steps are critical. They meet your need for order and predictability as you make changes to your habits. That will help you maintain a stable environment you tend to thrive in.
C Style
You place a high value on Accuracy and Quality. For you, it’s important to take time to plan your habit transformation. You won’t feel comfortable changing your habits unless you have researched the pros and cons. Your pride in producing high quality work and following guidelines means you’ll need to study what you want to do and why and the details for making the change happen. Only then will you feel confident that you will be successful making the change to your habits. This of course requires time so you’ll need to get started on the plan for the new year sooner than the other styles in order to convince yourself you will be successful.
Please contact us if you are interested in learning your DISC style.
We offer DISC assessments and coaching for individuals and teams.
