New Year’s Accountability

OK, it’s that time of the year folks. New Year’s resolutions. Ugh. I totally get it on one level, but I’d like to trump that thinking with a different set of logic.

Resolutions have as much power as the UN General Assembly, or Congress it seems these days. Nada.

Here’s what I think and so does a guy who I really respect. Alan Weiss outlined these points in a recent “memo” and I’m giving him all the credit.

How about New Year’s Accountability? This is much more powerful if you follow the logic.

• Take time to exercise and improve/sustain your physical health. Don’t get around to it when you can. Schedule the time and the trainer.
• Engage in at least one developmental activity per quarter. Build your assertiveness skills, or learn to paint, or develop coaching approaches, or take up an instrument or all of the above, or whatever suits you.
• Acquire new friends. You don’t have to abandon the current ones (although some you probably should) but you do need to find people who can make you “stretch” and from whom you can learn.
• Lower your stress level. Stress is a killer, from masking talent to creating serious illness. Practice more patience and stop taking random events personally.
• Look at the larger picture. No matter who wins the next election the country will endure and prosper. Markets have to go down in order to go up again.
• You can always make another dollar, but you can’t make another minute. Use your time wisely. True wealth is discretionary time. Don’t let others steal it or take it.
• Start and end each day with a positive. It could be a prayer or a different reflection each day. Focus on what is going well, your strengths, and your best qualities.
• Don’t allow yourself to become a victim. Don’t listen to conspiracy theories (which usually reflect paranoia, by the way). Find ways to control your own fate and improve your own lot.
• Read widely and frequently. Inform yourself. Rise above the opinion substituting as fact on social media platforms.

Plan to have a great time and relish in it; don’t feel guilty about it. You can help others best when you yourself are whole. Always put your own oxygen mask on first.

As you review the list again you’ll see very little about doing. It’s more about becoming. We each have a calling in our life and it starts with looking inward and understanding the gift of life and the freedom that comes from walking in that gift. Each of us has at least one passion. Pursue that passion in 2016. Don’t make it about a checklist. Make it about relationship. God knows – that’s how He created us to live.

Zeal is a word of choice.  It will set you apart. Live life with Zeal and enjoy the ride.

Steve Adams

Sr. Business & Life Coach, Board Chairman & Entrepreneur

steve@livewithpurposecoaching.com