New Year's Resolutions? No Thanks.

2018 is drawing to a close, and it’s time to reflect on the past year, while making plans and goals for the next.

You may ask yourself things such as:

Did I drop that dress size? Learn to love yoga? Inspire my colleagues? Make enough bake sale snicker-doodles? Enrich my child with the right amount of karate, soccer, water color painting and mindful meditation? Force enough kale smoothies down my family’s throats? Did I “move the needle,” “make an impact,” “drive results?”  

You get the idea.

And then depending on your answers, you may draw up a list of New Year’s resolutions.

I’ll go to the gym 6 time a week and eat only clean, organic, vitamin rich, healthy foods. I’ll volunteer as class parent. I’ll learn Japanese while simultaneously teaching my four-year-old Japanese. I’ll get a promotion, hell I’ll start my own company! 

We have the best of intentions, right?  To be the very best we can be, and to push and challenge ourselves. But does it work? Well, perhaps for some of you, (*yay you*,) but who among us hasn’t come in hot at the new year, buying those new Lululemons and hitting the gym two times a day only to fizzle out by mid-February? Who hasn’t come to the end of the year only to realize you merely purchased the “Intro to Japanese” book, but failed to actually open it?

I am hardly the first person to suggest that New Year’s Resolutions are less than effective. No ground-breaking information here. I’m also not suggesting that reflection and goal setting aren’t worthwhile and important. But I do believe that many of us tend to set unrealistic “resolutions” while unfairly evaluating our achievements. I know that I do.

You know what? No. I didn’t get a promotion this year. No. I didn’t achieve 20% body fat. And yeah, I fed my family store bought tortellini more times than I care to admit. So, at first blush it looks like I failed on all my goals. But let’s dig deeper. 

This was a good year for me professionally. I learned a lot about myself in my current position, I took risks, I learned from mistakes, and I know the past twelve months have only made me a stronger recruiter and leader.  My body fat? Well, I don’t even know what it is because I stopped measuring it, and for me, that’s probably for the best. I’m no sculpted athlete, but I exercise regularly and maintain a (relatively) healthy lifestyle.   As for the home-cooked meals? It turns out the family is so busy with the many after-school activities, that those have become a lower priority. My kids are doing great things, and we are helping them build life skills while making awesome memories. And so what if those memories don’t include homemade ravioli on the regular? I’m a terrible cook anyways.

As for next year? I’m not writing a specific list of resolutions, as I know it will change and shift throughout the course of the year to come. Instead my goals are simply to make sure I continue to give my best, and to give myself the credit I deserve.   I hope you’ll do the same.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!