Goals vs Resolutions

Or -- How to eat an elephant.

 

THANK GOD! The holidays are over. We’re all as fat as a tick, the bowl games are over, the hangovers have abated, and we’re ready for some normalcy.

 

This is the time of year most folks make New year resolutions. It’s a time honored tradition designed to shatter self esteem. Pure unadulterated self-promises to do or not to do certain things. A month later, the habit they chose to kick, the gym they promised to join, the secret resolve that sneaked back to the forefront and they still have the same problem(s) with an added burden of guilt and shame.

Sound familiar? Your steely resolve for the following years is: NOT TO MAKE ANY RESOLUTIONS!!! But somehow as the holiday’s approach and thoughts turn to the new year, your subconscious begins tallying items to place on your resolution list.

This is the time to submit. Don’t fight this start of the year assessment. Consider the phrase; resolution list! RESOLUTION LIST. Now write it this way; RESOLUTION

Just write a list. Write it in ambiguous terms. Here’s an example; my own general list for 2014. There are no resolves. No set-up for failures. Just a list. Don’t number them… place in random order.

• Continue healthy living — diet and exercise.
• Complete and publish a couple more novels.
• Introduce folks as to ‘My style of OZONE THERAPY’. Anti-Aging therapy.
• Phase out my blog. Spend the time on novels and promotion.
• Diversify my OLD TREE manufacturing facilities and assembly points.
• Embrace, configure, and promote the ‘International Wellness’ concept.
• Continue franchising the ENFORCED MEMORIZATION TECHNIQUE in Asia and other parts of the world.
• Package my novel/screenplays into salable units on Amazon.

Somewhere on the list will be an asterisk on a task. A MUST DO!

* File my address with the clowns at the embassy concerning “PROOF OF LIFE”!!

** Hire a new accountant in the USA — fire the old one!

*** open a new bank account in _____???

These are important tasks that need to be on a list. Why this list? Simple… If every task is on the same list, you will notice some of the other general statement tasks (subliminal reminders)as you plow through the ‘must do tasks’.

I’m not suggesting the daily household list; buy oranges, finish Charles Krauthammer’s book, wash the car, take out garbage, etc.

However, there is one of the general goals on your overall list that needs to be placed on the daily chores list — your health!

Focus on your health. Do what’s necessary to delay or reverse the aging process.

People have a tendency to make wishes rather than goals when it comes to money or accomplishments. “I wish I had a better job. I wish I could save more. I wish I could sell more widgets. Or my favorite; I WISH I COULD WRITE A BOOK!”

Anything that can be quantified should be broken down to the lowest common denominator. Saving — how much? Over how much time?

For example: to save $2000.00 in a year (a small elephant), one should break it down. $166.61 per month. Okay, that’s $38.16 per week or $5.54 a day. So, that’s not so hard. Skip the Starbuck’s, pack your own lunch, stop smoking, skip the beer after work. You name it…$5.54 per day stuffed into a jar will deliver you $2000.00 in a year. Deposit the monthly amount in an interest bearing account and it will grow even faster.

Okay, let’s write a novel in a year. Most of my novels are around 70,000 words. (that is 280 -300 pages — a larger elephant)Again, we break it down. Use 11 months. 6363 words a month. 1480 words a week. 211 words a day. Less than a page a day will create a 70,000 word novel in eleven months. The editor has it for a month and BINGO! You have your best seller.

Lose weight — same program. Make a reasonable goal over a long period of time. Then subdivide down to so much loss per week.

Drinking, smoking, biting your nails, drug addiction and other personal habits need to be addressed differently. Seek help!

Manifesting good or bad into your life is always self thoughts and self talk. Make you list and then remember to review it once in a while (LIKE EVERY DAY!)

Understand the rules? Be general and reasonable with your desired achievements. Anything that can be quantified can be broken down to the lowest common denominator. Thus you have turned a WISH into a doable GOAL.

Achievement is always based on discipline. Even the simplest task can be considered an achievement. Not doing some “jive dance in the end zone” achievement, but an achievement none-the-less. Saving five bucks a day and stuffing it into a jar… that’s an achievement. A simple discipline. Writing a page a day for your novel. That’s an achievement. Take small bites over a long time span and soon you will have devoured the entire elephant.

**** this is my last post for some time.  I'll be concentrating on the two novels I am currently writing. Have a swell 2014!