Making “New Year’s Resolutions” Achievable

I started forming my plans for 2010 about a week ago.  They weren’t unusual: more income, less expense, more fitness, less weight, more planning and less clutter.  It’s a familiar list.

I’m in gear already with the fitness piece.  In the words of the second Mrs. Foley, “It all starts at the supermarket.”  She was right about that.  On the last trip to the supermarket, I didn’t buy any junk food and avoided carb-laden foods.  Fresh veggies, lean meat, dairy and fruit are what came home.  I gave some unopened snack food to my daughters after dinner last night to take with them for their upcoming NYE party.  Changing my diet now and continuing exercise at the gym will help me on the path to weight loss and fitness.  So I started at the supermarket where it all begins.  If it ain’t in the house, I can’t eat it. 

When it comes to the rest of the list, it’s really about blocking time and being task-focused.  A solid income search effort simply requires planning the time to do it, and then doing it.  Searching online for opportunities, networking and working with recruiters isn’t hard, it just takes some time and effort.  The challenges are poor planning, everyday distractions and a lack of resolve.  So rather than creating New Year’s Resolutions around them, I plan to plan and to focus on focus.

TIWIKE

What’s the big deal about New Years, anyway?  The ancient Romans named the first month of the year after the god Janus, who had two faces; one looking forward and the other back.  Janus could look into the past and the future at the same time.  So the New Year celebration is centered on reviewing what happened and projecting what will come.  Not a bad thing if we resolve to make desired changes in the coming year.

What sometimes happens at this time of year is that we look at the same list of things we wanted to do last year and didn’t, and promise once more to do them this year. This is a recipe for disaster unless we really take a hard look at what we would have to do to actually achieve the goals we’re setting and breaking them into tasks.  Tasks are manageable.  High level goals are not.  Setting a goal of “losing weight” is a great idea if you’re actually going to do something about it, but losing weight consists of tasks like “eating healthier ”and“ exercising at least three days per week.”  Those are doable.

It’s easy to feel defeated when you set big goals, don’t plan the tasks, and fail.  So rather than listing ten goals for 2010, resolve to achieve one goal like “lose 20 pounds” and list ten tasks that would get you to that goal.  Make the tasks manageable.  One might be “join a gym.”  If there isn’t a gym close enough so that you will actually go there regularly, you may want to choose a different task like, “get a workout video and an exercise mat.”  The next task might be, “create and test a workout schedule.”  Work on that one goal by completing the tasks, and make sure you’re checking off those tasks as you go. 

And finally, there is focus.  If you focus on your tasks, you will achieve your goal.  That means planning activity, tracking it, making necessary changes, logging progress and celebrating the small successes.  You’ll have to pay attention to what you’re doing and not doing, but this will bring you victory where in the past you may have been defeated.  Plan for success, focus on activity and achieve your goal.

Resources

Here is a brief article listing some of the common New Year’s Resolutions

<http://pittsburgh.about.com/od/holidays/tp/resolutions.htm>

This is a short, fun article with a few different ideas about resolutions

http://webworkerdaily.com/2009/12/28/new-authors-look-at-new-years-resolutions/

This is an excellent article, including links, etc… from the very cool people at MindTools

<http://www.mindtools.com/page6.html>