Management New Year’s Resolutions

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How to Keep Your Management New Year’s Resolutions

What Is the Most Depressing Day of the Year?

The most depressing day of the year is January 24. Why? Statistics indicate this day many people give up their New Years’ resolutions and return to their former negative habits. Isn’t that pleasant?

This statistical rule of thumb allegedly applies to both personal and professional habits. While the recorded reasons for this result are a bit cloudy, there may be a reasonable explanation. Many experts have authored speeches, articles, and theories that claim that, to break a bad habit, you need to practice the new habit for only 21 days. After this period, you should be well on your way to establishing and internalizing the new habit(s) you hope to create.

However, many psychological professionals have made scientific analyses that indicate a new habit or resolution takes an average of at least 66 days to generate solid roots. Research suggests that it takes at least this period to implant the new behavior as an automatic part of one’s personality. This result is not the end all, be all, but simply the end of the beginning. Proponents maintain that the popular 21-day theory is more wishful thinking than realistic fact.

The average adult human simply needs more time, hence the 66 days, to counteract a behavior that may have been years in the creation and with reinforcement through repetition. It matters little whether the habit is unhealthy or illegal, as the human psyche treats all thoughts and behaviors equally. For example, should your goal be to reverse the undesirable pattern of procrastination in your life, psychologically, this habit is just as strong as an addiction to drugs or alcohol.

Professional behavior patterns, reinforced over years, that you’ve decided to change, will take a serious commitment and repetition. It is encouraging that spending only 66 days reinforcing new behavior can make such a difference in correcting habits that may have years of repetition.

How to Make New Year's Resolutions Work

In addition to the wonderful news that only 66 days need to elapse before you’re on your way to keeping your specific New Year's resolutions to become a better manager, the unfortunate factor of reality once again rears its sometimes ugly head. Once you eliminate all the good and bad theories, statistics, research, studies, and techniques, you are still the captain of your own starship. The wonderful adage, “If it is to be, it’s up to me,” once again prevails.

There is only one person that can help you keep your New Year's resolutions and make you a superstar manager—you. This is both the good and the bad news. The good news: your resolutions, behaviors, and excellence are completely within your control. The bad news: should you not achieve the success you desire, you can't blame anyone but yourself.

To keep your New Year's management resolutions you should do the following:

• Dedicate yourself to adopting the new behaviors you want at the workplace.  True dedication is hard, but very rewarding and uplifting.
• Repeat these new behaviors consistently, regardless of the internal pressures to return to your comfort zone.  Just as all athletes learn and improve through repetition, repetition, repetition, you must continually practice your new behaviors until they become automatic.
• Accept that you can easily relapse into prior undesirable behaviors should you miss too many practices.  Understand that you cannot take time off from practice, as you’ll often slip back into your former comfort zone.
• Admit that your goal is hard and requires your maximum effort to achieve.  Regardless of your position on the organization chart, the number of people you manage, the exposure you generate for executive management, the only person that matters in this equation is you. Dedicate your effort, commitment, and focus to him/her.
• Keep your eyes on the prize regardless of the challenges presented.  Management involves a constant barrage of challenges, large and small. Stay totally focused on your goal of new, more effective professional behavior at all times. While minor deviations to solve problems are acceptable, immediately return to your goal after handling individual challenges.

Remember, you can make resolutions at any time during the year. When you are truly ready to improve your management performance with new behaviors, do it. Understand the suggestions noted above and accept their truth. By accepting these techniques and realities, you may find that your entire outlook, professional and personal, changes for the better.