I know it’s a tradition, or annual rite of passage, or whatever, but I don’t do resolutions. Haven’t since 2000. My primary objection to resolutions is that they are usually full of absolutes or have an end date of infinity (“I’m going to quit smoking” or “I’m going to start working out”).
It’s not that I don’t need a lot of improving (the list is long), it’s just that my success rate is much higher when the target can be achieved in some finite period of time, at some achievable clip level.
Each January, instead of resolutions, I set time-bound, achievable goals for the coming year. To some, this might sound like semantics, but there’s a clear difference between “coaching my daughter’s soccer team this year” and “spending more time with the kids”. Obviously, coaching your daughter’s soccer team will lead to you spending more time with her, but it’s much more concrete than a vague resolution.
My subset of goals is constantly changing, but here’s what last year’s list of major categories looked like:
- Financial
- Spiritual
- Physical
- Intellectual
- Philanthropical
- Professional
- Work Outside of Work
For each of the above major categories, I list between 2 and 6 goals with a target achievement date. For example, under “Financial”, I might target how much I want to put into my kids’ 529 college funds, and for “Physical”, I might list a couple of road races that I want to compete in.
Regardless of the specific targets, forsaking the nebulous world of resolutions for something tangible and attainable has scratched that annual itch and keeps me on the path to my ultimate goal: constant self improvement.
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