The 2023 No Resolution List
Welcome to January and welcome to a new year!
Sometime after the new year begins, and the first day of work, many people create a list of resolutions – a list of personal and professional desires often encompassing habits, health, or wants. Then, sometime in the first week of February or sooner, all that positive energy fades along with the resolutions.
People consistently fail to see their resolutions to the end of the year. So, I ask, why are you setting yourself up for failure? This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try to stop smoking, eat more vegetables, land a new job, or any of the thousands of resolutions people make. You should try to be healthier and happier, but making a resolution is not the way to make it happen.
This issue of Wise Words provides articles and resources to reframe the idea of resolutions toward setting goals, intentions, and the power of small changes for big payoffs.
The beginning of a new year is a powerful time to assess areas of your life that you want to improve. However, that doesn’t mean it’s the only time. Pick any Sunday, any first day of a month, or milestone. Every day is a new opportunity to start fresh.
The dictionary defines resolution as the act of determining. A goal is defined as the end toward which effort is directed.
Resolutions are ideas and goals are actions.
Consider a goal like a commute to work. You don’t wake up in the and then arrive at work, even if you’re working from home. You have a morning routine that may include pets and family members. You have a route to work that may need to change for meeting times or weather. As you complete one small task in your morning, you move to the next, and the next until you arrive at work. Because you’ve been walking through a morning routine and commute, whether it was to school or work for most of your life, you don’t think of the individual steps until something changes, like your car breaks down or you get a new job.
Why is it then, that we make lofty resolutions and rely on willpower and not small thoughtful steps and measurable results?
Reframe your resolutions as goals and treat those goals like a commute through the year. What one or two steps can you take to make slow and steady progress. Complete those and start again. Make sure to allow for unexpected changes. Forgive yourself if you miss a step, pick a new moment, and begin again. In this scenario, any day can be the start of your new year.
I wish you a healthy 2023 full of success however you define it.
P.S. Coaching is an excellent way to set measurable and meanings goals. Email Melissa today! [email protected]
