I’ve been taking the last few days, like a lot of other people, to think about goal setting for 2018 and beyond. But this year, goal setting is more of a struggle. Most of this is due to the fact that I’m going through a lot of transition and change in different areas of my life. There have been so many milestones in my life this past year—finally finishing my bachelor’s degree, my youngest graduating high school and then starting college, and of course Christina’s wedding and all the preceding festivities.
Be More Productive Now!
The New Year’s celebration is one of my favorite holidays. New beginnings can be so hopeful, exciting, and scary all at once. Who doesn’t love a chance to start over?
I like to think that any day is a day to begin again so I’ve never been one to make New Year’s resolutions, but it can be very motivating to use this time as a marking point for a newgoal or for tightening up existing ones.
A goal I shoot for every year is being as productive as possible. I’ve found the number one tool to accomplish this goal is list making. But not just random list making. I use a method based on what’s called the Ivy Lee Method. Ivy Lee was a businessman and productivity expert in the early twentieth century. His method is simple but effective.
Reflections and Mindful Resolutions
The year 2016 is over, and let’s face it, it was not pretty. Everywhere I turned – Facebook and Twitter – they all were counting down the seconds until 2017, hoping that the New Year would be different.
While we might hope that a new year will bring a new us, we have to recognize that years are just marked days on a calendar. Nothing really changes in those final seconds, nothing instantly transforms us. We still have to make conscious decisions to move forward and change. Entering 2017 does not erase 2016. We still have to remember the choices we made to get to 2017.
Without getting political or anything, it’s time to recognize that the world is changing. It’s time to do our part of working with it or against it. Resolutions don’t have to be about getting fit or quitting smoking. They can be about making a difference in the world. Because whether you believe it or not – one person can make a difference, and when we work together we change the world.
New Year’s Resolutions You Can Keep
New year new you, right?! How many New Year’s Resolutions have you made, promised to keep, and already broken?
Let’s face it, most New Year’s Resolutions are just bad habits that we desperately need or want to change. And changing our habits overnight, at the drop of a ball, aren’t easy. I find that my New Year’s Resolutions are more likely to be kept when I [Read more…]