Happy Sunday Everyone:
We spent New Year’s at my buddy’s ranch in Texas. Total of 26 people at the ranch, 6 families, kids all ages (7-16 years old). Four of us coach together which is always funny for the spouses, it’s like a therapy group. When JJ’s daughter said “try” and he responded with “that’s a failing word” the spouses looked at each other and started laughing.
I’m not a huge fan of New Year’s resolutions. From my own experience they haven’t worked in the past. They’ve always died off for me, you come out strong and then you waiver, and then you’re done…and then you feel bad about yourself for having failed. If that doesn’t sound familiar, good for you…for me, it’s what it is. When Josh (owner of Ranch) said we’re going to go around all 26 of us and discuss 3-5 resolutions for 2020, I wasn’t overly excited. I could see the older kids weren’t overly excited either but the younger kids had thought this through, they put a book together with 26 envelopes with each of our names. We’d write the resolutions down, read them aloud, and then put them in the book to be opened next year on same trip (it’s annual). We started to go around and the resolutions were pretty special. It wasn’t all weight loss and income, there were items that had people throwing themselves out there. I went from thinking “this is cheesy/silly exercise to thinking, this is really special”. When you hear a 7 year old say one of her resolutions is to hug her parents daily, it’s pretty cool, or your own teen boys engaging in an exercise you couldn’t have imagined they’d participate it, its good stuff. Bottom line is I’m changing my attitude on resolutions but putting more thought in on how to make them work, especially for my boys.
Here are some things I’m thinking about:
* The definition: I like having definitions to make sure I’m not confused with how I’m looking at something: Definition of resolution: A firm decision to do or not do something.
* Mindset: It’s not a chore to have a resolution, it’s a fresh opportunity to better your life, we need to treat it as such.
* Set yourself up for success: How?
o define what your resolutions are clearly. Lose weight is not clear. Weigh xxx amount by xxx day is clear.
o write them down.
o have an accountability partner or partners. last year push up challenge was met because of accountability, daily text to group. This year my CEO and I are texting each other daily on a couple of items we’re both working on. You’re not on an island for wanting to be better, you just need to find others who also want it too and don’t worry about being judged for throwing yourself out there.
* Ask myself and my family members, “what is one thing I did today to accomplish my resolution?” This one is big for me.
A resolution is a firm decision to do or not do something. The New Year’s part just gives us a starting point on the date. Having a plan to execute on anything that you make a firm decision on is always a good idea.
Have a great rest of your day.