Today is the first day of 2011, and as many of you I have once again made up a list of my New Year’s resolutions . The date of 1/1/11 makes starting new thing and making new decisions especially symbolic today.
This year I have split my resolutions into 4 groups: (i) professional, (ii) personal development, (iii) family, and (iv) health/sports-related ones.
To be honest with you, not all of my 2010 resolutions have come to life, and analyzing why this has happened (or why some things haven’t happened), I realized that it was not merely a matter of discipline (as is frequently is the case with New Year’s resolutions). It seems that some of the resolutions I made for 2010 were just not meant to come true. Unlike my 2009 goals/decisions, some of my 2010 ones were characterized using either one or all of the below adjectives/descriptions:
- Too broad (with New Year’s resolutions you want to be as concrete as possible)
- Unrealistic (it’s good to be ambitious, but setting achievable goals is so important)
- Unmeasurable (if the year has come to an end, and there’s no way to say whether the goal has been achieved 100% or not, it wasn’t a good goal in the first place)
And in addition to the above points, I made too many new resolutions in 2010, which made it really hard to focus on those that should have been prioritized higher.
So this year I’m going with one main resolution for each of my 4 groups, and two-three accompanying resolutions which will help me achieve the main one, bringing several other important things to life in the process.
If you want to share how you handle such things, I’d love to hear (and learn) from you. Please use the “Comments” area below to post your thoughts.
Sounds complex. Four resolutions in distinct areas, with 2-3 sub-goals… Might as well put them on an MS-Project file, put some milestones along the way and project-manage it.
I guess it all depends on what helps you the most. If your resolutions for the upcoming year mean you will do some things differently (than if you didn’t have them), and focus more on specific areas, then awesome.
It may sound complex, but, when the “sub-goals” actually drive you closer to the accomplishment of the main resolutions, it isn’t as complex as it may sound. Also, good point about doing things differently vs doing something you haven’t been doing it. In my case two are new, and the other two are different. It’ll be fun year!!
Hi Geno,
My own resolution is both ambitious and realistic (I hope)! I plan to begin my own blog this year and start with posting excerpts of my book twice a week.
I would love it if you could visit and see what you think!
All the best for the new year,
Neil