New Year’s Resolutions Shenanigans, 2016 edition

It’s the time of year when New Year’s resolutions are all around us. In a quick news search, I found more than 100 articles published in the last week alone. Apparently we’ve all resolved to write about resolutions.

New Year’s resolutions are especially tough because they are usually set only once per year and have unrealistic targets. When the gap between where you currently are and what you want to achieve is too large, people can easily get demotivated. This might explain why only 1/3 of people who make resolutions keep them for longer than a few days.

Six years ago, I decided to have a bit of fun with resolution-mania and posted my own tongue-in-cheek 2010 resolutions. A year later I even graded whether I stuck with them (I did reasonably well). For fun, I thought I would update them for 2016:

  1. Less reading on Apple devices; more eating apples
  2. Hope that 2016 isn’t sign that I will travel to 20 cities in 16 weeks
  3. Leverage twitter without becoming a twit
  4. Encourage everyone to do more hand washing, less digital washing
  5. Leave time for writing. For fun. On non-work subjects.
  6. Catch up on my reading backlog: 21 books and counting…
  7. Make sure my blog isn’t a Big Load Of Garbage
  8. Institute a ban on rubber chicken dinners at conferences
  9. Make sure that telepresence isn’t my permanent presence
  10. And my most important New Year’s resolution:

Enjoy the journey. Sometimes we get caught up in resolutions/goals/destinations and forget to revel in what’s going on around us.

Happy New Year everyone. Thanks for reading Manage By Walking Around.

4 Responses to New Year’s Resolutions Shenanigans, 2016 edition

  1. Gaurav Jaiswal December 27, 2015 at 4:53 pm #

    I’ll be with you on #1, 9 and 10 🙂

  2. Peter December 29, 2015 at 10:10 am #

    Number 10 resonates the most, and number 4 is perhaps the best business resolution for my clients and I. But most of all, I resolve to read more great ideas like these and then actually process and distill them. Your blog is always a good start.

    • Jonathan Becher December 29, 2015 at 10:11 am #

      Thanks Peter, really appreciate the kind words

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  1. Forget Work-Life Balance; Pursue Work-Life Integration - Manage By Walking Around - November 20, 2017

    […] These three forces are referred to as marriages because they “involve vows made either consciously or unconsciously.” The vows in our relationships are usually obvious and those at work are explicitly tied to our compensation which means we tend to stick to them. However, vows to ourselves are easily broken; resolutions rarely last more than a few weeks. […]

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