It’s a new year. Are you ready for it? Have you already made plans, created resolutions, set goals for what you want to accomplish?

In the last installment of Provertivity, “More Than A Wish,” I gave three steps you can take to set yourself on the path of success for this new year. If you followed what was prescribed, you should have a pretty rock solid plan entering into this year.

There’s just one problem. Having a plan and carrying out that plan are two different animals. Helmuth von Moltke, a Prussian military commander, said: “No battle plan ever survives first contact with the enemy.” Unfortunately, the first enemy that you are going to face, stares at you every time you look in a mirror. You are going to come to a face to face altercation with your own inertia and natural resistance to change. What you do to overcome these self-defeating enemies will determine how successful your plan will be.

Here are two strategies that I have personally used, that have helped me overcome myself and regularly accomplish my goals.

Overload your effort at the start

How we start something new makes or breaks everything that comes after. This is true in relationships, it is true in business, and it is true with new goals and habits. When we start anything new, it is going to feel strange and uncomfortable. That’s a big problem because we are wired to resist things that are strange and uncomfortable.

To get past the doubt, you’re likely to feel at the beginning of a new habit or discipline, fill your time with as much activity as possible related to that new habit or discipline.

There are probably a few of us who have made getting in better shape part of our plan for this year. You may have already signed up for a gym membership. Did you know that only around twenty-nine percent of people who sign up for a gym membership are actively using their membership after six months?

But, here’s the good news. Studies have shown that people who use their gym more than eight times within the first month of signing up tend to keep going. By overloading effort at the beginning, when their enthusiasm was high, they saw some improvement and some success and continued going. 

Did you know that when space shuttles launched, they used two million pounds of solid fuel and 500,000 gallons of liquid fuel to get into orbit. Guess how much it uses for the rest of a mission. Less than 300,000 gallons of liquid fuel. Once the space shuttle reached orbit, the momentum from liftoff and the gravitational pull of the earth would keep it in orbit for the rest of its mission.

Use this as a lesson for any new activity or habit you are trying to incorporate into your plan for this year. Give as much effort as you can for the next 30 days until you break through the inertia. Once you do, you will create momentum and need to use less energy to keep the new activity or habit moving forward.

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Win your fight through

I learned this concept after reading Jason Selk and Tom Bartow’s book “Organize Tomorrow Today.” It is language that my wife Lisa and I use all the time. It is common for us to celebrate winning our fight through when we know that one of us has finished a habit or daily discipline that we did not want to do that day.

We all have days when we just don’t have the desire to accomplish the habits we have put as part of our plan. This is when you have to struggle against yourself and win your fight through. When the alarm goes off (5 a.m. for me), and hitting the snooze alarm would be so easy, win your fight through. When it’s raining outside and getting soaking wet to accomplish a morning run does not seem worth it, win your fight through. When the calories in one homemade dessert that a coworker brings in the office don’t seem like a big set back to your weightless plan, win your fight through.

It’s not going to be enough only to do the work when you feel inspired or excited about your goals. To reach your envisioned tomorrow, you will have to work on your goals even when you’d rather be doing anything but working on your goals. To win, you have to finish. Napoleon Hill said it well, “Effort only fully releases its reward after a person refuses to quit.”

The quickest way to create momentum is to start! Start today. Overload your effort. When you don’t feel like doing it, remind yourself, “I have to win my fight through.”