What is on your list for 2023?
I’ve never liked New Year’s resolutions. They make me sad, since they always seem to end in failure and disappointment. And then they just seem to resurface next year. Depressing.
Can you even recall what your resolutions were for this year? Maybe you are better at them than me – but my experience tells me that most of us struggle with them. There are many reasons for this: We see them as “nice to have” or things we “should” do, rather than essential; we aim at things that are important to others and not ourselves; or we try to change too many things at once and then end up changing nothing. Or, my personal favourite, we give up when we don’t see progress immediately. It happens to the best of us.
My wife asked me a cool question on New Year’s morning: “If you could do or achieve 5 things this year, what would those be?” Then she asked me to write them down. And being the dutiful husband that I am, I made a list. But truth be told, it took me a while to get to the final list. There were a couple of things I could think of immediately and then there were others that came to me later.
I had to ask myself: What do I really want?
If you could only get or do 5 things in 2023, what would have the biggest positive impact on your life? (Not what SHOULD I do – important distinction there).
Without going into too much detail – some of the items on my list are practical things I need, while others are things I need to put consistent effort in to achieve. Some will take a bit of luck, but most are within my control. And that’s the point I think: New Year’s resolutions are often 99% wishful thinking and 1% “I might try for a couple of days”. Hence the resulting disappointment.
Since you’ve already forgotten about your resolutions for 2023, I invite you to make your own list. Keep it simple and try to stick to 5 things (I got to 6 actually, but I like all of them). Write them down and put it on the fridge for a daily reminder. Put your family member’s lists on there too. Then start ticking them off.
I’m happy to report that I’m making progress on most of them. Half the battle is actually knowing what you want. And if you realize later on that you actually want to aim at something else, change your list. The goal is having something to aim at, rather than just going through the motions mindlessly. Think, aim, take action!
Thank your for reading. Please do share with anyone you think could find this useful. Have a lekker weekend!
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