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Friday, February 7, 2025
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Why 2022’s New Years’ Resolutions Must Align With Who You Are…

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“So, what do you want to make happen this year and how are you going to do it?”

We know these absurd questions.

Much like the seasonal mating call of the Patagonian Squirrel, you can expect to hear them between the 29th of December and around the 15th of January.

Almost robotically, when we’re asked “our New Years’ Resolutions,” we jump to say things like:

  • “Yeah, get fitter!”
  • “Uh do better in my work/my business!”
  • “Become way more financially stable”

We also know that these goals generally fizzle out around March. At Zoomination, we’d quiver at the idea of these being called “goals” solidly…

We start to look for the more dedicated ones – the ones who push through the 15th of January… And this is also where you find the MORE specific goals – the ones you’ll only find in the crazy ambitious dude’s repertoires…

  • “I want to learn Google Adverts and get 100 new leads a week from it!
  • “My systems need work, I want to work less IN my business and more ON my business”
  • “My accounting needs to go into the cloud, and run smoother than ever,”
  • “I want to go on EIGHT holidays this year”

Generally, these ambitious entrepreneurs are specific, AND driven enough to make their goals materialize in the real world. They’ve practiced it enough to know:

“This year will end – and I will have one of TWO outcomes. Either I did what I set out to do, or I didn’t.”

You need to describe what you WANT, and create habits that TAKE you there. You’ve heard it a million times, probably. These are what are known as “outcomes-based” goals. Which work great. But there is a more powerful way to set up your goals, identified by none other than James Clear himself.

These are called “Identity-Based Goals.”
Imagine if you called yourself a writer. You love to write your thoughts down, and especially use it to iron out your ideas and concepts, before sharing them with the world.

You write 1,000 words a day. Anything less than this is an injustice towards your character, who you “think you are.”

Outcomes: You want to publish a book. The way to get there is unclear – meaning that if you miss this outcome, you could easily become very hard on yourself…

Processes: You create habits that contribute to your outcomes. You sip your coffee and bash 1,000 words out before 9am. Anything less than this is a break in the process, and can make you feel bad, hurting your outcomes.

Identity: You believe your actions represent an integral part about who you are on this world, and why you keep going.

If you believe you’re a writer, then missing your 1,000 words a day quota makes you feel like you’re out of alignment with who you are…

This feels worse, right?

Now look – the goal isn’t to feel bad. It’s to feel GREAT whenever you chase your goals down – creating self-reinforcing habits that justify who you are on this world.

Our question would be to you…

Do your New Years’ Resolutions represent your outcomes, processes or identity?