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I don’t like New Year resolutions. You see most of the time I think we fail to keep them.
We set ourselves up for failure – and often we choose resolutions that are really demanding of us and wonder why by the middle of February we have failed to keep to those promises we made to ourselves.
Or am i alone in that?
And no I don’t like New Year either – probably because it was never a happy time in my home when growing up as it’s the anniversary of my Dad dying (I was just 7 years old and my sister was 4 years old when he passed away just after New Year). Though I do try to make sure that my lack of excitement for New Year is not picked up by my children.
Yet while I dislike New Year I do like a challenge.
So if you are like me, why not look at your business and consider what challenge you would like to take on in the next 90 days? Then consider the following:
- What does that mean that you will have to START, STOP, CONTINUE, DO MORE OR, DO LESS OF?
- How will you know you have achieved your goals? What will you measure?
- Who can support you in your challenge?
- What resources will you need?
- What will you do to celebrate your success 90 days from now?
- How will you stay accountable to yourself?
One of the ways I am using to secure my success in 2010 is with the new mastermind group I established a couple of months ago. After just our first two meetings, I know we’ve already made a significant difference in our own businesses. It is truly amazing what spending time with positive, forward thinking colleagues can make and how meeting with them and sharing challenges offers up new opportunities. We also have a group of colleagues to whom we have to account to when we next meet in relation to the promises we have made to ourselves about actions we will take in our respective businesses.
In the meantime I hope you enjoy this fun video from Rhett and Link who also agree with me that setting New Year Resolutions just might not be the way to go – though I am not sure I agree we should as they say ‘raise the bar to walk effortlessly underneath’.
And good luck with your 90 day challenge. and down with New Year Resolutions!
PS – If you are someone that loves new Year Resolutions and always upholds them for the year – perhaps you can share your secret with us?
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December 31st, 2009 at 4:23 pm
RT @krishnade: New Year resolutions: why do we set ourselves up for failure? Here is an alternative point of view http://bit.ly/89PYKq
December 31st, 2009 at 4:52 pm
New Year resolutions: why do we set ourselves up for failure? Here is an alternative point of view: I don’t lik.. http://bit.ly/6tMXhG
January 5th, 2010 at 11:00 am
HI Krishna,
I love New Year’s Resolutions, I love to opportunity to start afresh, wipe the slate and get excited about the year to come. What I did this year was to take a good look back over my resolutions for 2009 and see which ones worked and which ones didn’t. By doing this it has helped me to be more realistic about my goals for 2010. I’m not saying we should not set BHAG’s (Big Hairy Audacious Goals) but we need to break them down into an achieveable and realistic size. So whether you set New Year Resolutions, personal goals or quartely strategic objectives goals are so important they are what define our lives and motivate us to keep going. Here’s to 2010.
January 5th, 2010 at 11:08 am
Thanks Ciara – and I know that your events and workshops helped people too in 2009 – be sure to keep us posted of future events in 2010 won’t you?
January 5th, 2010 at 11:25 am
I will of course Krishna – Good Luck with all your “Challenges for 2010″ !
April 1st, 2010 at 9:28 am
That’s a great idea Krishna. Every year I choose a statement that I can live up to for a year. It has to transcend all areas of your life and tie into something that you want to change or develop as a person. This year’s one is a personal challenge. So it’s not as easy to explain on paper. But in 2009 it was ‘I mean business’. At the end of the year looking back I set up my limited company in February and launched Have the Craic in June. I left advertising and started this new adventure. I also started blogging about dating.
If you give yourself a challenge or a theme for a year rather than a list of things to do you are more likely to achieve something real. It’s a mini-map for the year that you’re in.