Obligatory New Year Post

It’s that time of year again, where everyone starts making resolutions and plans for the upcoming year. I read somewhere that by February most resolutions (something like 80%) have been forgotten or set aside. It’s not difficult to figure out that this happens because people set unrealistic goals.

The key to setting reasonable goals is honesty. Self honesty, to be accurate. To set proper and achievable goals requires a hugely uncomfortable amount of self honesty. You need to look in the mirror and be brutally honest about who you are, what your habits are (Good and Bad), and then decide what you can realistically achieve.

Most people, when setting goals make their plans based on who they WISH they were, not based on who they actually are.

The most successful year I ever had regarding my goals was the year I turned 50. The reason I was as successful as I was, was because most of my goals had a certain trait that counter acted a quirk I have.

I lack self confidence.

Its insidious! My lack of confidence will have me not even try (“I suck, so what’s the point?”), or quit before getting results (“I should be getting better. I must be doing something wrong.”), or quit despite getting decent results because someone else is doing better (“They are SO much better than me, why do I even bother?”).

When I set my “50 Year Plan” goals, I knew that, due to that quirk, I would have difficulty following through. My 3 biggest achievements of the year were: I ran in a Spartan Race, I cycled 1300km as part of a Conqueror Challenge, and I took a Bicycle Repair Course…..

….all of which required that I register and/or pay ahead of time.

By committing myself ahead of time all I needed to do was work up enough courage to hit the “Submit” button on the website. At most a few seconds of confidence. Once I hit that button, I didn’t really have any choice but to follow through.

I also publicly announced on social media my participation in everything I’d signed up for, which had my lack of self confidence working FOR me on many of my goals. I didn’t want to embarrass myself, so I suddenly found the long-term discipline to train.

2023 was a bit of a disappointment for me. I didn’t hit many of the goals that I had set for myself at the beginning of the year. My goals were realistic, but I ran into some obstacles that couldn’t be avoided let alone predicted, and they derailed my momentum and my plans.

In addition to those obstacles, NONE of my plans had anything that worked to counter to my known challenge with following through. I had hoped to build on the success I’d had in 2022, but I underestimated the challenges I’d run into, and I also underestimated my ability to procrastinate in the face of “no consequences”.

This year’s plans are basically last years, but given last year’s lack of results my plans for this year they will have some modifications that hold me accountable!!