In the excitement of the moment, awash with grand ambitions, people are all in...burning themselves out before Valentine's day. By the time March rolls around, they are back to old habits, full of self-recrimination and swearing off New Year's Resolution - until next year. Not everyone fails though. What makes them different?
I have a theory. Based on observation of the world around me, as well as my own failings, a few things come to mind.
- The resolution is too vague.
- The resolution is too big.
- The resolution is unreasonable.
- A vague resolution is a dead end doomed to fail. For example, I can decide I want to go to Asia. Fine idea, but Asia is a rather large continent. How much time do I have available to travel? Which country/countries do I want to see? What's my budget? How will I get there? How will I travel within/between the places I want to visit? If I can't answer at least one of these questions, I'm not going to get very far.
- A resolution that is too big is one that tries to do too much. What if I decided that this year I want to try every single food on the planet in season? I know that the parameter "in season" denotes specific points in time throughout the year, so I have something that I can plan around. The issue here is that the world is a very big place, and there are a lot of different foods (100's of types of bread alone) and only so many hours in a day. If I extend my time horizon to 10 years, I might have a chance to achieving this, but trying to do too much only leads to frustration.
- A resolution that is unreasonable should be self explanatory; I can resolve to a) fly with an umbrella, b) swim through lava, or c) become a Martian supermodel, but the only thing I'll end up as is a) seriously injured, b) dead, or c) the next internet meme. No one in their right mind wants to go there.
So, what's the point to all of this?
If you're going to make a resolution it needs to be well defined. There are any number of acronyms that cover this - SMART, CLEAR, SMARTER, HARD - the important thing is to find an approach that works for you. To craft a resolution that has a chance of being realize requires you to do your homework.
This blog is my homework, and over the coming days, I'll be expanding on an idea I've been germinating that I call 4x13.
