Thursday, January 20, 2011

A New Year!

Well well well.

Here we are in 2011, and it is a new year. It has been a new year for 20 days, and in the past 20 days I have come to a funny conclusion. New Years resolutions do not work.

Most people who join a gym in January quit after a few weeks. Most people who have professional or personal goals in the beginning of the year never meet them. I don't want to go over the why's. The why's are boring. It could be lack of discipline, too large a timeline (which leads people into thinking "I will do it tomorrow"), or maybe people genuinely want to accomplish their goals when stating them, but forget!

Whatever the reason, I have come up with a solution, at least for me. 2010 was a wasted year. Except for all the awesome plants I obtained, 2010 was a year where I didn't grow much. I looked back at the end of 2010, and found myself in worse shape than I was before 2010. The question became then became: Now that you have wasted 2010, what will you do in 2011?

2011? Well, for starters, I know what I am NOT going to do. I refuse to make a New Years resolution, which will be pushed to the back alleys of wishful thinking, in an attempt to make myself feel better. I decided to think about resolutions differently. Why did they come around during New Years? That seems like an arbitrary decision isn't it? If I need to join a gym, why didn't I do it in the fall? If I needed to volunteer more, why didn't I do it in the summer?

The truth is, New Years resolutions are popular but not practical. So how can I, in 2011, make practical resolutions? I have a list of things I need to accomplish in 2011. Not just one big resolution but an entire list! I decided to make a different kind of resolution.

THE NEW MONTH RESOLUTION.

January is almost over, but in January I have constructed the most perfect plan! This plan doesn't involve big, nearly impossible to achieve resolutions. It involves smaller resolutions which can be achieved in the time span of one month!

In 2011, I plan on accomplishing 11 RESOLUTIONS. They will have a small time frame (monthly time frame)! So from January to November, every month, I will begin with a monthly goal. At the end of the month, I should have some sort of sense of accomplishment at completing that goal.

Why not have a goal for December? Well December is a busy month first of all. Secondly, if there was a goal I failed to accomplish, I should be able to play catch-up in December!

Why does this system have advantages over the yearly one?

Well for starters, you have less time to accomplish your goal. So you always feel the pressure to get off your ass and do something so it will be complete by the time the month is over.

Secondly. The goals will not be hugely monstrous, like lose 50 pounds, or get a bigger apartment to live on your own. They will be smaller. You know, like goals someone can actually achieve!

Third, it will not take one year to look back and make assessments! Every month I can look back and say, HOLY COW, I did something cool in March. If I hadn't planned on it, I wouldn't have done it!

And lastly, in December of 2011, even if I did not complete all of my goals, it is quite obvious, that I would have completed some. And if I look back on it, I can say, 2011 was worth something to me. It wasn't wasted like 2010.

But like all resolutions, I need friends who will encourage me! I need your help!

January is almost over, so I will be making a very small goal (see future blog, coming sometime later this week). And I have a goal for February. But I need people to suggest small goals for me to accomplish. If a goal is worthy enough, I will add it on my to do list for one of the months, and I will do my best to accomplish it! Lets see how many I can do!

You can leave me suggestions for monthly resolutions on my facebook page!
http://www.facebook.com/jmejia1187

And don't be shy!

2 comments:

  1. Hmmmm potential goal....get a passport,..... and taking a trip out the country with your causins can be another goal!...lol

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, This was exactly the type of goals I was looking for. The passport thing takes a while though. The waiting period is like 3 or 4 months. Also, a trip out the country would cost a lot of money, that I do not have. But a cross country trip is perfectly feasable!

    I will add both to "possible goals" list!

    ReplyDelete