You too can achieve your resolutions

You too can achieve your resolutions

Words by Francis Kahihu (the author is an Organisational Development Practitioner)

kahihucareers@gmail.com

Can you recall two of your high priority resolutions you made in December last year or early January this year? Maybe, maybe not. You could be part of a growing team of people who confess of their struggle with managing their resolutions. Now, the end of the year is finally here. It seemed 12 months away in January when you sat to draft the all famous resolutions. You could have promised yourself a load of great engagements that you hoped to achieve within the 12 months the year had to offer. You feel very disappointed with yourself when you fail to realize these objectives.

One of the main reasons why we set ourselves up for failure is failure to develop realistic and measurable resolutions. Just how have many made resolutions they can now boast of having achieved?

1: Develop resolutions with pay offs. Realise the need to have the resolutions motivate you to work towards double gain. Instead of having a resolution like ‘I should lose weight since I am too fat’, you could develop one like ‘I should lose weight so that I can participate in my child’s sports day in the course of the year’. Such a resolution pushes you to work hard aiming at both goals. Since one goal depends on another, the motivation to address the initial resolution is high and possible to keep it sight. Every time you read through your child’s school report and realize how close the sports day is, you will seek to check on how you are faring in terms of weight loss.

2: Pick the priority 3 resolutions: There are times when we come across friends who have developed a list of resolutions they seek to attain in a period of 12 months. As you may realized by now, 12 months is not such a long period of time. As you work towards developing your resolutions, take time to reflect on how your year has been and the prospects that the New Year brings along. Brainstorm and develop as many resolutions as possible and then narrow them down to the priority three. You could consult your career objectives and other personal goals in the process of prioritizing. Consider factors such as cost and other resources required to implement the resolutions.

3: Seek a ‘resolutions mate’: Accountability is a key factor in successful achievement of any goal. This applies to both individual and corporate goals. One of the reasons why institutions make their strategic plans public is to seek for accountability on the achievement of the goals set. It is amazing to realize that there are even couples who don’t share their resolutions. This is a sure way of shooting yourself in the foot especially when some resolutions require reallocation of certain resources and changes in lifestyle. Look for someone who shares your resolve and seek their partnership throughout the implementation period.

4: Finally, work out the implementation plan in manageable chunks. With the vigor and fear of failure, many people have been known to earnestly seek to achieve all the indicated resolutions within the first quarter of the year. With this, they experience burn out even before a substantial amount of their resolutions have been realized. It is helpful to break down the resolutions into small bits and in a sequential manner. Seek for a way in which the achievement of one resolution paves the path for the rest of the resolutions. Do not start with resolution 3 when you could have been more logical to start with resolution number 1. Such wisdom could be clarified through open discussions with the resolution mate.