Setting Honest Resolutions
Setting any resolutions this year?
So many get lost and forgotten. Looking back to last new year, a few of ours worked out and a few didn’t. Some we pushed hard to achieve, others became less significant to us. They changed and weren’t always the main focus of our lives.
I rarely enjoyed the process of setting goals at work. I liked the principle of it but not the application. They were either vague or unexciting or too dependent on circumstances within the business. It often felt like just a mandatory corporate requirement rather than a useful guide to the priorities for the year.
But I do now love setting and tracking personal goals. Partly because I feel like some of life has been too directionless. Letting things happen or waiting on some change of situation. I like to have some idea of what direction I’m headed, even if that changes through the year. I thought this year I’d do a little research to see what techniques other people are using.
This post from Ali Abdaal on YouTube has some great points:
Focus on the system rather than the results.
Focus on what’s within your control.
Honesty. Be candid about what you really want.
They don’t have to be ‘SMART’ or be about productivity. Set whatever goal you like.
Looking ahead doesn’t mean being dissatisfied with the present.
Think of the goals as the compass, guiding your direction.
Of course it’s gets tricky trying to be really honest with ourselves. I really want to want to be a better person. I want to want to be a better husband and father and son. But often what I want (demonstrated by my actions) is to watch a movie or buy some new camera kit. It’s easier to think and act in the short-term, which is another benefit of thinking ahead and being aware of the longer term possibilities.
Bob Goff talks about wanting goals that only God could achieve. To believe the ridiculous (‘capers’ he loves to call them) might just happen.
I was inspired too by the approach taken by Laura Mae Martin, the Executive Productivity Adviser at Google:
1. Define your top priorities for each quarter - write them down. Say no to everything else.
2. 30 mins of me & God time daily
3. Define productivity as doing what you intended.
Phylicia Masonheimer talks about needing a “very clear, Christ-inspired vision broken into small, daily steps”:
Pray about your focus for the year. Summarize it with a word, phrase, or verse.
Think about who you want to be when you're eighty. What is that person like? What did he or she do? What would she or he be doing now to get there?
Break the goals into monthly, weekly and daily habits or tasks so they actually get accomplished.
Based on all that, I’m going to set some goals for the year. I don’t know what they are yet. I might not decide until January 1st or 2nd or 10th and that’s fine. I’ll probably share them here. I like the idea too of listing achievements, small or large, through the year.
“You get to choose the future that directs your present” - Ben Hardy
