Today is the fifth of January and, thus, the festivities, celebrations and hangovers of the holiday season have officially ended. Many have made goals and New Year's Resolutions to keep throughout the upcoming year. However, it is frequently pointed out that many, many people fail to meet these goals by March, (should they be remembered at all). I myself have failed in keeping resolutions in previous years. After analysis, I think I know why.
The lack of organization and thought put into goal setting is annoying to me. To many times, people make unrealistic goals for the sole sake of announcing them to their friends to insincerely impress them, which, after, are not even considered again. Subjectively defining their goals and not putting any thought into how their lives would be changed within 365 days time. The solution is simple, simply stop making resolutions for the sake of impressing others and start planning your year for the sake of your own self-improvement.
So what to do with this year's resolutions? Don't make one. Instead, open up a fresh new document in whatever word-processor you use. Make bulletpoints of goals you want to accomplish by next year, and in parentheses, write out your plan of execution. Should you have difficulty thinking of a plan of execution, erase that goal from your sheet. Prioritize your goals, those that would yield the most benefit for you and those which you want to complete the most are the ones which you must allocate the most time and effort to doing. Most importantly, your goal sheet must not be made for the sake of impressing others, rather, it should be a comprehensive plan to significantly change your life by the end of the year.
Thus, without further ado, I print out my sheet of goals, which I will not ignore. Make goals that interest you, as that is how you keep goals in mind, by never being bored by them and loosing interest in that pursuit. I will place mine on my desktop, where I will not forget about it.
2 comments:
Nicely said. I also think "resolutions" or goals should be considered all the time, not just for the new year. Scott Young wrote about what you just posted: http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/12/12/7-reasons-not-to-set-a-new-years-resolution-in-2008/
I highly approve of your method. Good job--I adopted a similar strategy a week ago.
Here is deeper insight into New Year's resolutions: http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/12/24/what-arent-you-going-to-do-next-year/
In the end, it's better to have goals than to have habits, like our favorite Mr. Tynan whom you posted about recently: http://www.betterthanyourboyfriend.com/my-20091-goals.htm
It's funny that he commits seriously to freezing himself after he dies.
The writer of "The Art of Nonconformity" also did an exellent post on the new years.
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