Did you make some resolutions for the New Year? Is there a whiny, little voice in your head that mutters "What happened to last year's resolutions; you didn't even do one"?
Many years ago, I would go through the same old thing each December and January. In my idealistic youth, I could come up with a page or two of resolutions. Out with the old habits, behaviors, and weaknesses. In with the new me!
You know what happens. The day-to-day drum of life has a hypnotic beat and it's easy to lose sight of most resolutions.
But there is a better way. If you want to see something happen this year, try this approach:
- Sit down with your list of resolutions for 2007.
- Find the one that is the most important to you. Not most important to your spouse or your parents or your dog. The one that is most important to you.
- Take a pen and scratch off the rest. You don't need them. What? Do you really think that you can be firm in purpose on more than one thing at a time? That's crazy.
- Think about your most important resolution. Is it a goal or is it a practice? A goal is something like "By the end of the year, I want to be able to run 5 miles without stopping". A practice is something like "I am going to run 1 mile a day every other day for a week. Then I'm going to run 2 miles every other day the next week. And then..."
Behind every practice, there's a goal. There's something that you believe will give you life. But if you don't tell yourself what that goal really is and you're just telling yourself the practice, your practice turns into a law and you stop doing it. Your being cries out for life; sooner or later, your being rebels against law. Make sure your resolution is a goal, not a practice.
- Figure out what practices you need to do over the next two weeks so that you start moving toward your goal. Personally, I'd limit myself to a practice or two. If you have more practices than that, figure out which two you need to do first. Do the others later.
- Do them.
- Give yourself freedom to fail in the practices. You can afford to mess up, especially if you picked the wrong ones or if your stomach was bigger than your eyes.
- Every week or two, adjust your practices as necessary so that you can meet your goal by the end of the year.
- If you meet your goal before the end of the year, congratulations! You should celebrate!
- If you so desire, pick another goal and start anew.
That's it. Pick one thing, figure out how to make it happen, and adjust those plans as necessary. This has worked for me, sometimes despite my plans.
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Sean Winstead
Tags: Life, resolutions, new years