No New Year’s Resolutions

‘Tis the Season for New Year’s Resolutions (NYR)!  I have read a lot on Twitter and Facebook.  Change this, improve that, do this differently, experience this or that, etc.  Another underlying them is the “won’t let bad people in my life, will focus on positive stuff, removing those that drag me down, etc.”.  While all of these are great pursuits and worthy efforts, most will fall short.  Why?  Because if you set goals once a year, you are likely to follow thru on them just as often.  It takes consistent, regular effort to make, maintain and achieve your goals. In addition, it takes, in my opinion, a much more granular approach to goal setting and achieving and NYR are just goals, right?

I liken NYR to something my Dad often talked about with me.  Leadership was his favorite subject and one he knew quite a bit about as a Leadership Mentor for over 40 years.  He mentored some of the best and brightest CEO’s in the region and had great stories to tell.  Along with that, he would often talk to me about what Leadership training and mentoring really meant to him.  He said it ‘wasn’t’ the quick fix weekend seminars, the NY Times Best Seller book on tape, the package of DVD’s and manuals, or the big rah-rah weeklong go find yourself types of corporate adventures.  My Dad thought they were useful, and helpful, but had only a very short term impact on an individual.  They were meant to augment a much more detailed plan.  He thought, and I agree, that the way to find true change was to work on it daily/weekly/monthly for years at a time.  No quick fix, no weekend rah-rah’s.  Just a detailed plan, executed often, analyzed periodically, measured, and then reset for the next round.  This is NOT what NYR are in their truest definitions.

So, with that in mind, I’d like to suggest you reconsider trading your NYR in exchange for detailed, regular (one a month, or once a quarter at most) goal setting with plans on how to get there, accountability steps along the way, reconciliation of goals at stated times (month/quarter) and then a reset/adjustment for the next time period.  In my opinion, this is MUCH more effective.  You want to achieve your NYR goals, right?  Consider trying this method as an alternative to the annual ritual of ’set and forget’.  Being good at anything takes practice, and practice by definition is something that happens more then once.  So practice your NYR at regular intervals, with the check-in methods described, and see if you have a better year with regard to achieving your stated goals.

I am not even close to the most successful person I know.  However, I have had pretty good luck at setting and accomplishing goals for myself each year.  I’d attribute it to my shunning of the NYR tradition.  What I do happens all year round, no one day to turn it on or off.  I think that is a big contributor to my reasonable sucess (reasonable = doesn’t happen all the time).  Do you want to try it?  Let me know how it is going if so.  OR, do you think I am off base missing this long time tradition?  Either way, I am going to continue doing it my way, because it generally works for me.  And I guess that is what really matters.  Do what works for you.