...new year

New Year’s Day is the perfect opportunity to sit, think and reflect on the year past and the New Year ahead. What was good about the year past? What do I want to keep doing? And what was not so great? How can I learn from that and do things differently?  In business this is a natural cycle, a method that we use continually – Plan, Implement, Monitor, Improve, Evaluate…and then plan again.

I guess there are all kinds of business models that can be utilised in our personal lives but often we abandon these and yet still expect ourselves and our relationships to grow, improve and achieve frequently unwritten goals.

The nearest most of us get to goal setting might be a list of New Year’s resolutions but if these aren’t SMART – how can we expect to achieve them?

I recently watched the movie New Year’s Eve and there was a storyline and quote that really made me think.

The storyline was about a character who had written a list of resolutions. It was quite an eclectic mix of experiences and actions. The list started with a catalyst action which the character took but then she floundered because the rest of the list appeared unachievable, unrealistic and didn’t include any ‘by when’ targets.  And so often that’s why our own resolutions flounder and fail before we’ve even begun.

Sometimes others can see our goals or resolutions in new, creative or imaginative ways – so that goals which seem out of reach are achievable, even if in more flexible or open ways. Maybe a New Year’s Resolution Mentor would be a good idea? Again we expect to receive guidance and advice to achieve our goals in a work context – so why do we often abandon this idea in our personal lives and relationships?

In the film, out of the box innovative thinking was used to find new ways to experience the resolutions. These were not always in the way the creator had imagined but enabled the resolutions to become achievable – along with the sense of exhilaration that accompanies success.

And this leads onto the quote that really stopped me in my ‘thinking tracks’…

“If you knew you wouldn’t fail, what things in life would you do?”

This brought home to me the fear and worry I assign to so many things if life – that stop me doing and being all kinds of things. Does my life and who I am measure up? To what God requires? To the rules of the society I live within? To the ideas and expectations of my family, friends and colleagues? 

Surely the echo within us – God within us, wants us to experience all we were created to be. So what stops us is our own questioning of what others will think of our actions and or decisions.

Often in business those who succeed simply don’t acknowledge or see failure, they take risks and fully experience life. There is no failure, just a different outcome.

So what does 2012 hold? If nothing else, an acknowledgement that I have the freedom to have, achieve and celebrate goals!