I hate resolutions. Seriously. When in the real world of things do you hear of resolutions that make a difference?
Resolutions come at from desperate people in desperate times and aim to completely & radically alter things as they were before. Think about it. People resolve to lose 60 pounds, quite smoking cold turkey after 10+ years and never beat their children again. These are the things that resolutions are often made of. The problem with trying to go from a dead stop to a full sprint with no training is that you are going to hurt only yourself and you aren’t going to achieve your objective of winning the race. People don’t change over night and stick with it.
Resolutions aren’t in our nature AND they aren’t sustainable.
I propose that better than any new, annualized resolutions is a continued state of setting achievable, but stretching goals. Let me expand.
Dream of the future of where you would like to be in any area of your life. Come on… dream BIG!
Now, take a very honest & real assessment of where you are today. For every one of us the gap between our BIG dream and where we are today is probably quite daunting. So… here is how you can get there.
Think in terms of 4 month increments (Spring, Summer, Fall — winter doesn’t exist where i live; school semesters do though).
Say you really want to lose 60 pounds. IF your long term dream is to do that in a year I suggest giving it two… no one said EVERYTHING has to get done this year; you make the rules! So cut your goal for this year into half to 30 pounds. Divide it by 3 — you need to lose 10 pounds in 4 months. Sounds a little bit more realistic doesn’t it. Now figure out 2-4 factors that will reasonably contribute to you losing 10 pounds (and keeping them off) in the next 4 months. Could be cutting soda out, cardio exercise 3 times each week, no more snacks after 8pm, and fries only once a week.
I am not here to give dieting tips. Here is what i am here for – GOALS
- Take a big dream
- Give it a reasonable amount of time to be accomplished
- Divide it is to smaller segments of time
- identify 2-4 key steps to accomplish in that small time segment.
- Evaluate your goal along the way.
- Dream about the long term outcome.
- Keep your head up and your mind focuses.
Hey great post man. I have always felt the same way about resolutions as well. They’re always unachievable or unrealistic. Maybe its because the majority of them are made in inebriated states? Either way, thanks for sharing some of your insights to setting one’s self up for a better chance of success in 2009.
great post, ryan! my wife and i have in the last year started “goal setting” for the year each year, and breaking those goals into half years or quarters to help make them more attainable and to track progress. it works!
also i decided, i’m only gonna reply to posts i have already had success with so everyone thinks i have all my stuff together and that i’m a leader who’s on par with you, even though that is absolutelly untrue