The beginning of a new year is full of anticipation and promise. Most folks make resolutions because they hope to achieve some success in the New Year they didn’t get done in the old. Whether it’s a perennial promise to lose twenty pounds, exercise regularly, or learn a foreign language - making a resolution means that there is something that bugs you enough to want to make a change.
Be Realistic
Be realistic about what you can do and why you want to accomplish any particular goal. If the chances of attaining the goal are slim to none, why set yourself up for failure? If you want to lose weight and tone up just to look better than your next door neighbor, then you might think about other character improvements that will pay off far more.
If you dropped out of high school don’t resolve to earn a degree in one year. If you’re forty and haven’t exercised since junior-high school gym class, it probably isn’t reasonable to try to run a marathon by March.
Assign each of your identified goals for next year to one of these categories:
- Resolution - You have resolved, decided, to achieve these goals.
- Dream - These are things you would like to accomplish if life becomes perfect next year.
- Stretch - This is the place for your grandiose, maybe-when-pigs-fly, goals.
Be Specific
A goal should only be listed if it is measurable. If you can’t quantify or describe a goal, how will you know when you achieve it? Don’t say you’ll lose weight; resolve to lose ten pounds by June 1st. Don’t say you’ll go back to school; resolve to complete eight credits by December 31st. Don’t write that you will be kinder; resolve to volunteer twenty hours each month at a homeless shelter. Don’t write down vague ideas, make declarative statements that define what you either will or will not do.
Resolve to Make Resolutions Fun
Gather a few of your closest friends or family members on New Year’s Eve. Have a shoe box with a lid handy with a supply of blank note cards and envelopes and pens. Have each person write on his own card his goals for the New Year. When everyone is done, place the cards in separate envelopes and seal them. Write the name of each person on the front of the envelope and the year. Put all the envelopes into the shoebox and put it away.
Next New Year’s Eve gather again and let each one open his card from the last year. Goals achieved or missed may be shared or not. Create an annual party where you celebrate with loved ones and note objectively the progress you’ve made since the last time the box and cards came out.
As each year passes add a new card and new resolutions to the ones already in the box. Before you know it you will have documented your goal progression over a few years or many years. Just think, if you started your children doing this in kindergarten they would have twelve years of cards to look at when they graduated high school.
Newlyweds, consider planning a New Year’s resolution party for just the two of you.
When you look back next year at those goals identified as resolutions you should have some successes to celebrate. Dreams and Stretch goals are just that, but once you truly resolve to achieve something then you become accountable. If you haven't met a goal that was a resolution last year... either move it to a different category or take yourself to task and set easier benchmarks along the way.
The continuous progression of even tiny steps will eventually get you to your destination.
A final thought on accomplishing goals, “Taking no action is always the wrong choice.” You will never find success if you never begin. Be simple, be realistic, be specific. Be successful next year!
Lynn Baber - Lynn Baber, Christian writer specializing in leadership, relationships, and all things equine.
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