Small Business Today Magazine MAR 2016 AMERICAN SERVICES | Page 22

EDITORIAL FEATURE

Why Most New Year’s

Resolutions Never Happen...
By Howard Partridge

M

any people make New Year’s Resolutions at the beginning of a
new year. Even if you didn’t call
it a New Year’s Resolution, you
probably decided to make some changes this year. So we’re well into 2016 and
most may agree that their resolutions
didn’t stick.

Level 2: Willing To Change The second
level is where most people get stuck. Once
they get started on the goal, the skill, or
the habit, they immediately realize that
implementation is going to be much harder than they thought. They get resistance
from others, they face some fears, and the
big bad habits immediately return.

to be. Level 5 is when your habits and
values have changed. Your life and destiny are determined by your values. You
do what you value and you value what
you do. Therefore, your habits control
you. The Character Level is where you’ve
successfully shed the old habit and replaced it with a new one.

With more “down time” than usual
during the holidays, business owners
have a chance to reflect on the past year
and do some thinking and planning. Unfortunately, once they get back into the
daily grind, the new ideas are usually
forgotten about. It’s the same reason the
gym is jammed in January, but by the end
of February, it’s a ghost town. At the very
least, it’s back to those that are actually
committed.

Humans change mostly through desperation or inspiration. The problem with
desperation is that as soon as you get
back into the comfort zone, you’ll relax
again. At some point, inspiration must
kick in. You have such a strong vision that
you’ll crawl across broken glass to make
it happen.

How do you know you’ve reached this
level? Only time will tell. You might think
you’re in the Character Level but you’ve
just been in the Commitment Level for
a long time. Several years ago, I became
desperately aware that I was unhealthy
and out of shape. I became desperate
and willing to change so I focused on a
new plan with a certified nutritionist and
a personal trainer. I lost 50 pounds and I
was super fit!

And that’s the difference. Most people never reach the commitment stage.
In my third book called “Think and Be
Phenomenal – The 5 Levels of Being
Phenomenally Successful”, I shared why
most people don’t reach their goals…

The Five Levels of Being Phenomenal

In many cases, a true goal is not really set.
It’s just a wish. But if you have a clear goal
in mind, you must understand what happens to you as you reach for a new goal,
attempt to develop a new skill, or create
a new habit. Everyone goes through the
five levels when they attempt to reach a
goal, change a habit, or learn a new skill.
The problem is they don’t realize that it
is a process.
Level 1: Self-Awareness First, you become aware of a new idea or a new skill you
want to develop. You become aware that
change is needed. You get a new vision and
desire is created. This is a great start!

Level 3: Intense Focus Once you’ve
made the decision to change, you’ll enter into a period of intense focus to begin
building the new habit. But you’re only
halfway there. The groundbreaking, research-based book “The Power of Habit” by Charles Duhigg, points out that it
takes as much as 245 days to build a new
habit depending on the habit and how
much emotion is tied to it. Gary Keller’s
best-selling book “The One Thing” reveals
the average is 66 days. Stay consistent for
66 days.
Level 4: Commitment At some point
during the consistency of Level 3, you become committed to the new lifestyle, habit, or routine. You’re seeing some concrete
results. Your confidence is increasing because of it. This newfound confidence
may even turn into inspiration which will
carry you a long way. But commitment is
not the end. It’s just the level you must get
to in order to enter Level 5.
Level 5: Character Level 5 is when you
have truly become the person you want

20 SMALL BUSINESS TODAY MAGAZINE [ MARCH 2016 ]

I had a new lifestyle, or so I thought.
After five years of being super fit, I got
bored with my trainer and my nutritionist. I thought I could go it alone. I began
to slide and before I knew it much of the
weight had come back.
This taught me a valuable lesson: Even
if we know about The 5 Levels, we are
still vulnerable if we don’t have support,
encouragement, and accountability. Everyone should have a coach, and even
better, a coaching community. SBT

Howard Partridge, President of Phenomenal Products, Inc. and International Business Coach, is the author of 7 Secrets of a Phenomenal L.I.F.E. and 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business. Get a Free CD
that reveals the 5 Secrets of a Phenomenal Business by visiting his
website at www.HowardPartridge.com/SBT.