According to USA Today January 17th is the day that most people break their new year’s resolutions. So why do so many people quit their goals so quickly and what can you do to avoid this?

Often times it has nothing to do with the person or even goal itself; an admirable goal can still fall by the wayside if you fail to ask yourself one question, “Why?” Asking yourself why something is important, or what it will mean to achieve that goal, attaches an emotion to it, which will help you stick to it in the long term. That reason why will get you through the inevitable challenges and hardships in achieving your goals.

At the end of 2020, all of our recruiters were asked to set their goals for 2021 in three categories, Personal, Professional, and Financial, and asked to elaborate more. What would achieving this goal mean for you, your family, your future, etc.. By doing this, we were foreseeing the positive (or negative) outcomes that achieving these goals would bring, and with that a positive emotion was attached to this goal. Attaching emotion to a goal will give you the boost of energy needed to continually chase even the hardest, most long-term goals you can dream up.

Another tool we like to use are deadlines. Set an end date to which you want to achieve a certain goal. This will also make it easier to break down your goal into smaller milestones, offering small victories and encouragement to stay the course!

Lastly, one of my favorite ways to stay motivated towards goals is to put something a stake. Once you have reached a goal you have a reward waiting for you, whether it is material, an experience, or treat that you enjoy, the satisfaction of getting something that was promised can serve as a great motivator.

So next time you are setting goals whether they be yearly, monthly, weekly or daily, take the time to really thing about not only WHAT you want to achieve, but WHY you want to achieve it and HOW you are going to achieve it. Success is on the horizon!

Written By Lindsay Schaaf: Director of Research for Specialty Chemicals Recruiters