Don’t waste time with New Year’s resolutions. Over 50% fail in the first six months and it’s mentally defeating to set such a high bar at the beginning of the year only to abandon it when the long, cold and dark days of January and February become the grind they inevitably will be (You hearty people of the North feel this- you private equity firm serfs know it as well).
Write your resolutions and implement them now or whenever change is needed. Short, medium, long term plans, design, write and act. If you stumble at them during different points throughout the year, dust yourself off, evaluate and keep going. There is no magic to the calendar turning over.
We will soon enter the season when ‘influencers’ feel the need to tell us their high success rate on last year’s resolutions and then roll out 2027’s list (spoiler alert: their lists will make you question if everyone has the same 24/7 amounts of time). It’s ok to read them, I do, and sometimes I even find inspiration in what they express, but don’t let their grift become your plan. It’s easier said than done, and getting easier for this older man, but don’t be distracted by the nonsense of social media.
One way that I found works for me is to avoid New Year’s resolutions all together and have my ‘betterment plan’ executing well before. Most year’s I roll mine out on Veteran’s Day, but this year I needed to make some course corrections and began a new plan on Labor Day. Veterans Day is early enough where I have a clear picture of the past and a grounded view of the future, before the craziness of Thanksgiving-New Year’s engulfs me. In order to hit Veteran’s Day I usually start in my journal in October. What works for me is to use business travel days on airplanes to savage myself in words before arriving at what I would like to change. With the needed change settled upon, a plan for how I will accomplish it is written, not so proscriptive that I require spreadsheets and detailed lists, but a framework for improvement that gives me flexibility as well. It really doesn’t matter what I do (or what some influencer does), you need something that works for you.
I will stumble, of this I am sure. I stumbled in July and August when the weight of heavy work travel and the pressure of summer’s obligations cracked my routine. I refocused, was honest with myself through my journal where I spared no blood or bruised pride dismantling myself, and what came of that cathartic exercise became my new anchor point.
I will stumble between 19 December and 3 January. I already know this. I will pick up the pieces on January 4, review my Labor Day commitments and resume. At some point in 2027 I will reevaluate and publish a new plan and new resolutions. Some years the stumble is just a stumble, some years it’s a full face plant. Don’t beat yourself up, just fix it. Be your own best friend, and your best friend needs to be both uplifting but also tell you when you made a mess of things.
What have I learned in my 60 years? Evolve, correct, adapt and evolve some more.
Honing oneself into the sharpest blade possible is the greatest art project we commission in this life, make it count, make it cut smooth.