About the most stupid thing I’ve heard about New Year’s resolutions is: my resolution is to not make any New Year’s resolutions.
That resolution usually comes from someone who bumbles along from year to year with a trail of usual problems – overweight, excessive drinking, heavy smoking and unfit, not to mention being an obnoxious loudmouth.
The transition from one year to the next marks an important calendar milestone. Perhaps it is an appropriate time to reflect on what good habits you want to work on or bad behaviours you wish to discard.
Yet there’s no reason why you can’t make resolutions any time of the year. Those made in July or September are just as valid as those made in January.
What is a resolution? It is a firm decision to do or not to do something. For New Year’s resolutions it usually involves committing yourself to eliminating behaviour that is potentially harmful to you.
It can also involve introducing new behaviours that enhance your life such as healthy eating, regular exercise, moderate consumption of alcohol and spending more time with family and friends.
A New Year’s resolution can also be a commitment that a person makes to personal or business goals and projects. Yet sometime these goals can be so big and so many that hardly, if any, are achieved. These are typical: start a new business, run a marketing campaign, win 1,000 new subscribers, reach a certain target sales and so on. And then there could be personal goals such as taking a vacation in Thailand, learning to speak a new language or take up a new sport.
In the first year of a startup you can say goodbye to all of that as you’ll have to be focused on one thing only – making your startup venture viable.
You’d need to break down your startup goals into clear tasks with deadlines. It might feel like the goal posts are shifting all the time – and you may have to change direction suddenly – but you’ve got to stay focused.
I wouldn’t be impertinent to suggest any resolutions or goals as they are extremely personal. For me, I want to focus on a definite marketing plan for Ideaaccelerator. I plan to complete at least one new product for subscribers and deliver even more valuable content on business ideas and innovation more regularly.
I’m going into 2013 determined to act on my daily resolutions: to find something to smile about, acknowledge others, slow down to a pace closer to nature and let taxi mini businesses continue to have their way on the road.
Of course, I’ve promised myself to eat less peanut butter, spend less on magazines, read books I bought five years ago and cut down on coffee.
I wish you will with accomplishing your New Year’s resolutions.
Stay inspired
Chesney Bradshaw
