No New Year's Resolutions For Me!
Every year millions of people perform an annual ritual at the end of the old year as they ring in the new.
This ritual is The New Year's Resolution.
Calvin and Hobbes is a daily comic strip by American cartoonist Bill Watterson that was syndicated from November 18, 1985 to December 31, 1995. Publishers: Andrews McMeel Publishing, Author: Bill Watterson
The new year's resolution has a very long history which I will not get into here. You are more than welcome to Google it and learn all kinds of things about the subject.
Many people have the best intentions when it comes to new year's resolutions.
They announce to their family and friends their intentions to lose weight or quit smoking or correct some other issue that they know they should or should not be doing.
In the end, many fail to take action or they do take action for a short period of time. They have not set goals that are specific and realistic. They have not thought about the commitment needed. A decision to follow through to complete the goal no matter what has not been made.
The end result is that when life gets in the way and the road ahead gets tough to navigate, they quit.
This does not mean that they are bad people, it just means that they are not committed to complete the resolutions that they made.
Let's change the mindset from resolutions to yearly planning and goal setting.
Where do you want your business to be this time next year?
Sales? mailing list size? number of blog posts/articles written? expansion of web sites/new niches? affiliate links and relationships? new product creations?
Where do you want to be on a personal level next year?
What training and new skills do you want to learn? What books do you want to read?
Where do you want to be in areas other than the business?
Your health? your family? your friends? other personal goals?
The difference between the new year's resolutions and yearly planning and goal setting is that we are planning specific things that are realistic and achievable with action on our part.
The planning aspect is deciding what actions to take to make our goals a reality. We are not simply wishing something to come true, we are setting things up where they will come true in our lives.
Another huge difference between the two is that we come back and review and adjust our plans on a daily basis. We allow our goals and plans to come alive because we embrace them and we make them our own.
Many successful marketers spend an entire weekend with this task of planning their goals and plans for the next year. It is that important!
Dave.
Recent Comments
34
Love the pics as always and the post but the resolutions always get broken so it is indeed better to refocus your way of thinking and planning and this I like - well said mate
Ya I'm more into planning and goal setting. New Year's Resolutions are a waste of time and usually never come to fuition. Goals are measurable, attainable and just more intelligent.
Yes, you are right. Normally New Year Resolutions are ideal but not realistic. That's why after some time every body goes back same palace and waiting for next new year to make same resolution. If the Resolutions are Realistic then there is no difference between Goal & Resolutions.
More over it requires followup.
I think you need to have goals that you are working towards all year long, not just once per year. To be effective goals need constant attention. The tasks necessary to accomplish the goals need to be continually updated and revised if changes are needed. It is a continual process.
Setting major goals at New Year is fine as long as the plan to accomplished them is worked throughout the year.
Xin
I know everyone talks about goal setting, but I just can't get into it. It all seem like so much pressure. I'm capable of doing hard work and putting my nose to the grindstone, but I want to enjoy the ride along the way.
On one hand, I can see where you are coming from. The bottom line is that goal setting is just a guide for you to follow. It does not mean that you absolutely have to get AB&C done today no matter what.
It is a target to shoot for so that you have some measure to gauge your progress. If you were going to go on a trip and travel in a direction that you have never been before, you would want a guide or roadmap to look at so that you do not wind up way off course somewhere. Dave.
Thanks for sharing. For me it works best, when I make the changes the moment they are necessary. No procrastination! People who wait for the end of the year to change something are not really committed from the beginning. Secondly, the ones that announce everywhere what they are going to do, obviously need reassurances for their aspirations, which also is not a good sign. Therefore, your suggestions could make it work for them!
yes, this is not a once a year exercise. Planning and adjusting along the way should be an ongoing activity all year long. Well said. Dave.
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I'll be making one resolution, but it will be in relation to my readers. It will be something they and I are truly interested in achieving and not that difficult to pull off. Maybe they'll look at it as a challenge and it will spur them to come back over and over to monitor my progress and find ways to fulfill their goals.