Remember or Forget?
It’s the 10th of January 2017. Have you “Remembered” or “Forgotten”?
What, you may be asking? Resolutions of course!
Popular consensus has it that by the 31st of January most will have abandoned their New Year’s Eve’s Resolutions. A somewhat more studied approach has that date moved to Feb 14th … neither seems to stake a claim of success for us as a people does it?
Does it really matter IF we set resolutions in the grand scheme of things? I believe it does … and here’s why – Your self-esteem is on the line; your integrity is at stake; your future hangs in the balance.
(A bit of science here, if you’ll allow, it’s known it takes energy to move, but few remember, it takes energy to stay put!) Since we know staying put, idle, in-active, stationary, etc or any other synonym for the action of taking no action requires energy on our part, it’s a waste of all that’s good to not improve. My perspective is we don’t get the luxury of “sitting on the fence” we are either improving or not, progressing or not. We therefore should do what we can to constantly improve, we send our children to school for this very reason for 12 or 16 or for some a life time of education … why not hold our own standards to this opportunity of excellence?
WHY is what we should be asking ourselves, why, do we walk away from our resolutions? Some will say, “well, I simply forgot … got involved in life and all its activities and simply forgot.” Others will admit that, “I didn’t forget, in fact I remembered and upon further introspection decided I didn’t really want to accomplish that resolution.” My mother once told me, “If you’re going to use an excuse – any excuse will do, you might as well say I didn’t do it because I ran out of peanut butter!”
RULE #1 – DON’T MAKE EXCUSES
Let’s explore how it is that some people manage to set and achieve their resolutions, or goals. They don’t necessarily wait until 11:59 p.m. of the 31st day of any year to attempt such an exercise. They plan to accomplish their goals, resolutions and dreams in a more formalized setting. December is a great month for this, there are many “free” days and business typically runs on a holiday schedule between Dec 25th and Dec 30th allowing you to find all the time necessary to reflect on your year and challenge yourself to do better in what you’ll find are “important aspects of your life”. I suggest you break it down into professional and personal goals. You’ll find many approaches to the categories or sections of your life to improve, I like to use these: Mental, Social, Physical, Financial, Family, and Spiritual for Personal and these for professional: Profit, Products, Skills, Productivity, Physical facilities, and People (employee) development
Rank or score yourself on a scale from low to high as to your current satisfaction in each area; in those areas where you KNOW you need to improve you have a “ready-made” list of goals or resolutions.
RULE #2 – SHARE THESE GOALS WITH ANOTHER
I’ve found that when I’ve included “significant others” in my coming years goals and they ask me “how are you doing on such and such” I never FORGET (I’d be embarrassed) and I always REMEMBER.
How do I do it, you might be asking yourself? I follow my own advice, I enlist the use of my “GPS” (Goal Planning System) … feel free to reach out to me here and I’ll provide you a complimentary glimpse into our system over the phone.
Have a Prosperous and Happy New Year,
Willard Kille
