It’s that time of the year when we should have time to relax – reflect on the year that was and spend some quality time with our families.
Christmas gives us time to reflect on life – on how fast our children are growing – how we can appreciate what a busy year it really was. “Is it Christmas Time Already?” – New Year is just around the corner.
So what happened to last year and to last year’s New Year resolutions?
Have I succeeded in my resolutions? Well, its a pass mark for me personally. Some resolutions I have made – and kept and other I have not – dismally failing.
Why did I succeed on some and not others?
I managed to achieve business goals and personal educational goals in broadening my understanding and setting up expansion in professional financial services. We renewed and improved our ISO9000 business processes and just about made our annual revenue number, and set up for an exciting new business venture in 2009.
However – my failure list is also just as long. I didn’t manage to lose weight, or keep up my early morning walks or get fit, or increase my time with my kids. Why did I fail in those and not the other ones?
I have a hunch that the ones in which I have failed are the ones dealing with changes with the core of who I am. Sometimes its easier to do, than to change the doer.
I just ran out of time in my life for the hour’s walk in the morning – the urgent tender (that I wish we won), the important quote, the demanding customer, the difficult and bureaucratic supplier, the exhaustion, the travel to and from Perth. All valid excuses I tell myself.
BUT, none of these are worthy of an excuse. All these things, the busy-ness, the chaos, the travel, the commitments, are all valid parts of my life too. If I want to find time to change I have to re-organise these as well.
This gave me pause to as the question – Were last years resolutions doing goals really personal goals at all, or are they just part of the normal business goal setting regimes?
Perhaps we should sort our new year resolutions in to two piles. Ones which we want to ‘do’ something and ones in which we want to change to ‘doer’.
Its my hunch that the resolutions we really desire are the hardest ones to achieve. Because they arn’t achieved by doing anything, but are achieved by becoming someone different.
If I want to find time to change – to introduce a new habit and become a different person, I have to invest in time to let the habit form and transform me – to renew and change my mind.
Invest in the 28 days of daily practice that it takes to form a new habit – to mentally prioritise my time and efforts.
Noted Preacher and Evangelist, Phil Pringle once said, “Tired people change the world”. Being tired isn’t an excuse for not changing. I am beginning to believe that its THE key signal of change.
Are we too tired to spend time with the kids, take our bride to dinner, or to get up early and walk, or be disciplined in what we eat – or to invest time in ourselves to change?
Is tiredness, the result of our old pre-existing time investment decisions being put under stress by our new habit and ‘pushing back’. Perhaps, its time we changed those time investment decisions.
If we are the same people we were last year, how can we expect to achieve different things in 2009?
This year write down your new years resolutions,into two piles – “changing” goals and your “doing” goals.
Make time to establish those new habits and invest that time in the most important business asset you have – YOU.