Part 1

What’s it gonna be? You know what it’s about? Yes, “Report Card Day”. Then, declaring to yourself (first), then to others; what have you in store for new year’s resolutions.

We have to take stock first. How did we fare in 2023? Have we met our new year’s resolutions? Are new year’s resolutions the same as goals? Let’s check it out:

A resolution is a statement of what you want to change. It focuses on the idea of achieving. For example, saving money.

A goal is a statement of what you want to achieve; the steps you need to take to achieve it; and when you want to achieve it by. They focus on the effort needed to achieve. Simply put, goals make resolutions possible.

The difference between intentions, goals and resolutions are: intentions define the actions we take today, while goals and resolutions are future focused.

Why do most resolutions fail? We are thinking too big (I know, you must have heard this phrase more than you care to now, “Think Big”) which is not entirely wrong. However, the tasks needed to get these resolutions going, and keep them going throughout the year, may not have been carefully thought out in the first place. What is the action or game plan? What do we need to do to keep these resolutions going?

More importantly, we may not have considered the “why” we want to achieve these resolutions. The fact remains that we may not be ready for change. Or we do not want to move out of our comfort zone, though we may not be happy where we are now. Or we are lazy.

Resolutions can provide clarity for goals – Writing out a list of goals provides you with direction. They allow you to plan your course for the future. Without goals, you could end up wasting your time, money and energy, which leads to feeling overwhelmed and unprepared for opportunities that may arise.

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Part 2

Fast forward to today Jan 15th, 2024.

I started with this essay 1 and a half days before the end of last year. I wanted to help the different categories of people:
~ Those who had resolutions and goals and achieved them.
Congratulations on your achievements. It is one of the greatest forms of self-motivation. Spend a bit of time enjoying your achievements. Then, put into motion your 2024 plans.

~ Those who had resolutions and goals and did not quite achieve the desired results.
I fall in this category. I had three main goals with resolutions intertwined with them. I won’t go into the specifics of all of them.
A borrower is a slave to the lender: a powerful reminder. I am an advocate to working towards a debt-free lifestyle. Although I have yet to reach the desired goal I had set for the year, good progress has been made.
Reducing weight was the next goal I had set for 2023. Again, here, I fell short of my desired goals. Though there was a 3kg drop that showed on the weighing scales, I still have 3kg more to lose.
Writing my book: that was the third goal I set. I hardly made any progress with this. However, I seemed to have been conscientiously or unconsciously gathering resource material for the book that has yet to take much form of a “book”. I know that once the scenes in the form of words start to form, there will be no stopping. I am ready when this magnificent waterfall of words start to flow. There will be no stopping then, until the book is complete.

~ Those who had resolutions and goals, started working at them, yet soon fizzled out during the year. “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Yes, I can sense many of you who fall in this category. You may have got into this “resolution and goal trap” because your friends and family were all gungho about “you have to do this” exercise. You penned down your goals (possibly drawing up 1, 3 and 5 year plans)and the how and when you were going to work at them. At this point, you still had your friends and family around you diligently and feverishly setting up their “starting point” on Jan 1st.

When Jan 1st came, you started moving. However, before long, it all fizzled out. “Why am I doing this? My life was alright without all this hard work. Sure, I don’t mind b*tching about everything. Way easier, then keeping tabs on resolutions and working on goals.” And here’s the cool thing: “I don’t want to be a herd follower”.

~ Those who did not have resolutions and goals.
Ain’t having none of that hard stuff. I know none of it is going to work. Been there. Done that. So, I’m not going to have any of that Tom Foolery nonsense. I will continue to sit at a coffee shop every morning, complaining about how society and everybody else are not doing their job to make life easier for us. “The food is full of artificial stuff in it that gets us out of shape. I want to exercise but the air quality is poor. The weather is too, hot, too cold rains, all day long, the sun’s UV rays will bake me”…the list goes on and on.

It is coming to the end of the day. You can’t expect different results from doing the same thing.

We have to decide. Decisions, decisions. It is quite… or very difficult when we have to make decisions like these. To some people, it is easier for others to make decisions for them.
However, I see making my one decisions as a gift. It may seem scary because I don’t think that anyone can safely say they know the future. Every moment that has yet to come is the future.

As for me, I don’t want to have this question and wonder at the end of the day, or period or year, “What if?”

NOTE:
I chose to leave Part 1 of this essay almost in tact as when I had initially started working on it just before the end of last year. Then, many events filled my time that prevented me from continuing part one and completing it earlier. Yes, I know, as per my essay; it was for me to make decisions which could have seen an earlier publishing date. However, the two week “time lapse” has allowed me to shoe-horn Part 2 in.

These views are basically mine and no way do I want to compartmentalize anyone. I write this base on my own past experiences of the four categories. I have been working on Goal Setting and Time Management programs for the past 35 years. Just when I think I am beginning to understand these concepts, I challenge myself with more questions.