An alternative to New Year’s Resolutions

The way we greet the New Year has changed.

  • Ancient Babylonians started their new year by repaying outstanding debts and returning items they had borrowed.
  • The ancient Romans ended the year by reviewing the previous one, resolving to achieve more in the year to come and paying homage to Janus, the god of doorways and beginnings (and source of the name January).
  • We currently start each year by resolving to give up a ‘bad’ habit or take up a ‘good’ habit.

So you have a choice about how you can meet 2014 – and you can choose how to spend your time.

What you have no choice about is that over the next 365 days, you will be presented with a host of opportunities and challenges. That is a certainty unless you live in a perfect world.

What you can do is decide whether you will seize those opportunities and choose how to meet life’s challenges.

The best way to seize opportunities is to expect and look for them – otherwise, how will you know they are there?
The best way to meet challenges is to attribute cause carefully:

  • what was your part in that?
  • If you did something different, what difference would it have made?
  • What have you learned that will help you avoid or minimise that in future?

New year’s resolutions are just the start – instead of making the usual effort to stop something ‘bad’ or start something ‘good’, why not choose how you would like to meet the opportunities and challenges over the next 12 months?

It makes more sense and, I think, is a much more productive use of time and resources.