New Year’s Resolution Aside: Choose Your ONE Word for 2020

Over the past few months, I have spent a significant amount of time visiting and facilitating a number of Advisory Boards both at PEO Leadership and Tiger21. As with most meetings at the end of the year, conversations focused on the highlights of 2019 and setting 2020 New Year’s resolutions. Developing New Year’s resolutions is a popular and time-honoured tradition. According to the U.S. News & World Report, the failure rate for New Year’s resolutions is about 80%, and most people lose their resolve by mid-February. If this is true, why do we continue to torment ourselves every year with a practice that is unlikely to yield any change in behaviour?

Let me suggest that we throw aside our New Year’s resolutions today. Why wait until mid- February? Instead let’s take up a suggestion of my good friend, Dr. JP Pawliw-Fry, Leadership and Performance Expert, best-selling NY Times author, co-founder of IHHP and of course a PEO Leadership Member for many years and add the following after you review your lessons learned in 2019:

“Take a couple of minutes and identify the SINGLE WORD that will define you through 2020 and be prepared to explain why.”

So simple yet so impactful! The word itself is important; however, the verbalization to others of the importance of that word (the WHY) is equally, if not more important. Take that word and proudly display it above your desk, on your screensaver, or beside your bed. Breathe, eat, and live that word with every decision you make in 2020, and the likelihood of success in realizing your dreams in the upcoming year will dramatically increase. If you’re having difficulty thinking of your word, let me share a few with you that I picked up over the last month from other great leaders: action, spark, team, effective, focus, streamline, execute, patience. Personally, I’ve selected the word – decisive. Upon reflection of the past year, I found myself sometimes procrastinating around decisions that were required sooner than later. This will not be the case in 2020! I wish you and yours all the best for 2020!

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ABOUT LEON GOREN

Leon Goren, owner and CEO of the Presidents of Enterprising Organizations (PEO), brings his passion for purposeful leadership to the PEO leadership community. Leon’s 25 years of leadership experience underscores his unique impact on the way PEO leaders lead, learn and live. He leverages his innate understanding of their needs and challenges to inspire leaders to excel beyond the status quo. Leon is also the Toronto Chair of TIGER 21, where he leverages his experience to develop exceptional leaders working with high net worth investors and families. As founder and CEO of justwhiteshirts.com in 1997, Leon became one of Canada’s first online success stories, bringing the dot com retail experience to Canadians.

Today, as an authority on leadership and business strategy, Leon is consistently invited to address various business audiences, including the graduating classes of Chartered Accountants. His thought leadership is published in the CA Magazine, The National Post and The Globe and Mail. Leon is on the Advisory Board of UMBRA and Timewyse Corp. and is a former member of the North York Athletic Club board of directors. Leon is a CPA, CA. He is married with three children and is active in sports, including triathlons and skiing.

To connect with Leon, you can find him on Twitter and LinkedIn.