Well, it is official 2013 is history and 2014 is here. So how do you think you finished the year? How will you start tomorrow? One of the best coaches I know asks a very good question of his clients about having this type of conversation in the future tense and we can do that here too. Are you will to play along? Okay, here goes….if we were having this discussion say December 31st at 10:30 pm (before you go off the deep end!) and you are looking back over 2014, what has to have happened for you to have happen in every area of your life for you to feel like you made progress? Don’t answer just yet; let’s look at some other parameters first shall we. 
According to USA.gov the top New Year’s Resolutions are:
- Lose Weight
- Volunteer to Help Others
- Quit Smoking
- Get a Better Education
- Get a Better Job
- Save Money
- Get Fit
- Eat Healthy Foot
- Manage Stress
- Manage Debt
- Take a Trip
- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle
- Drink Less Alcohol
The Harris Poll put out this list as its 2014 Resolution List:
- Lose Weight
- Improve financial budgeting
- Exercise More
- Get a new/better job
- Eat Healthfully
- Manage Stress more effectively
- Quit Smoking
- Improve Relationships
- Stop Procratinating
- Set Time Aside for yourself
Well, let’s just take this one step further shall we! I love TED! Let’s see what TED-Inspired New Year’s Resolutions might look like! You can see these at: http://blog.ted.com
- Make time to to make art. From the TED-Talk by Young-ha Kim’s “Be an artist, right now!”
- Take charge of your love life. From the TED-Talk by Amy Webb “How I hacked online dating.”
- Walk more, Sit less. From the TED-Talk by Nilofer Merchant’s “Got a meeting? Take a walk”
- Practice Gratefulness Daily. From the TED-Talk by David Steindl-Rast’s “Want to be happy? Be grateful”
- Ask yourself what you want. From the TED-Talk by Amanda Palmer. “The art of asking”
- Allow yourself time to meet your goals. From the TED-Talk by Angela Lee Duckworth. “The key to success? Grit.”
- See your fears as acts of imagination. From the TED-Talk by Karen Tompson Walker. “What fear can teach us.”
- Read books that challenge your perspective and beliefs. From the TED-Talk by Lisa Bu. “How books can open your mind.”
- Make your stress work for you instead of against you. From the TED-Talk by Kelly McGonigal. “How to make stress your friend.”
- Take breaks from your devices. From the TED-Talk by Abha Dawesar. “Life in the ‘digital now’!”
I was reading a great piece by Matt Peckham who is a correspondent based in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Matt wrote a piece to our point here of New Year’s Resolution and there are some very interesting “Tech Apps” out there to help you. Here is the list:
- Lose It! (for weight loss)
- Mint (for finances)
- Runmeter (for the runners in the crowd)
- Job Search (for those of you searching for that new job)
- Fooducate (scans the bar code to get a letter grade A to D)
- Breathe2Relax (for those who need to tackle stress management)
- QuiteSTART (for those who need to quit smoking)
- Facebook (for those who need to improve your relationships)
- Strict Workflow (time management strategy tool for 25 minutes for uninterrupted work time!)
- RunPee ( tells you the best time to “run and pee” during a movie without missing the best scene)
Now you have some very interesting perspective on what you might do in your thinking about those “Resolutions” or in the answering to the question I posed at the beginning of this blog post. Statistics tell us that most of us will forget where the list is in about 6 weeks, we will stop going to the gym by March 1st, we will cave in at the first big deadline or stressful moment and drink, stay up too late over eat one more time, or soothe ourselves in whatever form is our weakness. These are the cruel hard facts. However, there are those few who do break free and succeed!
My suggestion to you my friend is to look at your calendar and decide what you want to delete from your calendar and the areas of your life which are causing you the most pain or draining money from your business, days away from family, and not returning revenue to you by being gone. If you want to improve a relationship in your professional or personal life, you must put the time into growing and nurturing that relationship otherwise it will die.
Look at all areas of your professional and personal life and give a ranking to each.
Ask yourself this question:
“What has to happen to raise it to the number that I want it to be to fell happy, healthy and successful by December 31st @ 10:30 pm?”
