Well….the first month of 2017 has officially flown past so it’s probably a good time to ask ourselves, “How are we doing with our New Year’s Resolutions?” For too many, the answer would likely be, “Not so good.”
Why? Well, we are super busy people for one thing living in a crazy non-stop kind of world. Next, perhaps our list of NYRs was a bit lengthy and overly ambitious. If so, just glancing at it can overwhelm us.
And…the phrase itself could be partly responsible. Some of us get an uneasy, not-so-good feeling just hearing the term — New Year’s Resolutions. Perhaps because it reminds us that year after year we make ‘em and break ‘em. For too many folks, it is a rare NYR that makes it
from a good-intentioned, ambitious aspiration to an actual success story.
Most all of us have made many optimistic resolutions through the years….only to reach year end, with few if any of them accomplished. Often, we can’t even remember what they were. With this kind of track record with our NYRs, the phrase itself takes on a negative aura. The negativity triggers memories of past failures that lead to our not even making NYRs.
Labels can be powerful in good or bad ways.
If “New Year Resolutions” is a worn-out term in your opinion and one that only reminds you of broken promises to yourself, then here’s a new one to try — Priorities. Priorities get more attention because it is used to identify things we want or need to get done fairly soon or even quicker on an ASAP status. They are more urgent than other “stuff” and there are not-so-good consequences if we ignore the true priorities in our lives. And, quite frankly, the word “priority” itself just stands out and demands more our immediate (e.g. priority) attention than the other “stuff” on our to do lists … unless, of course, we label almost EVERY thing a priority and then we’ve diluted or totally destroyed its ASAP value and more.
So … here are lots of things we can do to up the odds we will indeed successfully reach our goals … all of which are good subject matter for other posts … but for starters, we must first have real (and realistic) goals regardless of their label – New Year Resolutions, Priorities, whatever … But, if there’s even the slightest chance that just hearing the phrase New Year Resolutions causes you anxiety and therefore, gives you an excuse to bypass them altogether…then maybe it’s time to try a new label like for them … Priorities, My Annual Goals, Blueprint for Success Stories — whatever gets our attention and motivates us — it doesn’t matter, but select the word or words that moves you toward success instead of any that may deflate your good intentions.
And at the end of the day, regardless of chosen labels, it just feels dang good to reach our goals – whether big or small – and successful closure and completion of our goals is the best motivator of all.
Yesterday is a cancelled check; Tomorrow is only a promissory note; Today — it’s the ONLY cash we have so we’d best spend it wisely!
UPDATE
Nancy’s most recent podcast was on this very topic. You can listen to that on her SoundCloud Channel here or her Anchor channel here.