The expanded resolution
published 29 December 2006, MST
Long ago, writing New Year’s resolutions seemed like a truly worthwhile activity. There was something inspiring about coming up with a yearly to-do list and, against the backdrop of smoke and noise, quietly resolving to accomplish every single item there.
I don’t know if I’ve just grown old, but now the entire preoccupation has, for a time, seemed trite.
See, except for insignificant circumstantial variations, everyone’s list contains pretty much the same things. Lose weight. Build up savings. Organize. Hear Mass every Sunday. Be a better (parent, student, employee, partner, friend). Be more productive. Does any one of these sound unfamiliar?
The tragedy is that the exact same action items creep into the following year’s list. This goes to show how irresolute most of us are in making good our resolutions. After you’ve reached a certain age, though, it is not anymore cute to say you’d still like to do things you have been intending to do say 10, 12 New Year’s Eves ago.
Occasionally, my mind strays into people’s apparent waning desire to come up with a list for the New Year. Why do our resolutions seem so shallow that we revert to the habits we detest, as though we were back to where we started?
People not being capable of changing overnight has become a pathetic excuse. Likewise, that cliché on the journey mattering more than the destination has become hilarious. Especially when the journey is not linear but circular.
There must be an explanation why year after year, we find ourselves in the same rut as though we were caught in a Black Hole we could not escape.
Perhaps it is because most of us write our resolutions in one sitting, as if merely to comply with a parent’s or a teacher’s instructions. As a result, we write whatever comes to mind—the easy and the obvious. Thoughts prior to or beyond the time allotted simply do not make it to the list, at least not for the next 12 months.
We also write only in the context of this year versus next year. While this shortsighted approach may serve the purpose of kids or teenagers, it surely does not say much for those of us who are hounded with the perennial “what am I here for?”
Prior to “coming home” to journalism, I spent nearly three years in the planning unit of an investment bank. There, my team’s main project for the year was a Business Plan. This was only an end product, the result of long, tedious weeks of consultation and brainstorming, not only within the unit but among all employees—from the rank-and-file, the managers, all the way to the executives.
So why be confined to year-on-year resolutions when it is in fact possible to see ourselves as corporations and our lives as projects?
Business plans start with a vision. How does a firm (or any other organization) want to be perceived? A mission states what, ultimately, the company exists for. Our expanded resolutions could start from a picture of our ideal selves. What kind of persons do we want to be? If we were to die today, what adjectives do we want people to use describing us? We could also cite the core values by which we intend to live. There are many virtues, of course, but we could only prioritize a few.
Next comes the evaluation of “historical performance” which serves as a baseline for future action plans. A two-column list would best show our accomplishments and failures for the relevant past period (a year is used here, normally). For matrix lovers who think in columns and rows, the pluses and minuses could be written per category. In the same way that a business organization has departments or units (think finance, research, human resources to name a few), we could delineate our lives into career, finance, domestic management, family relationships, social responsiveness, and spiritual growth.
An analysis of strengths and weaknesses comes next. In order to have a firm grasp of our goals and ascertain whether or not they are realistic, we need to know the areas where we inherently have an advantage. What are our natural skills and interests? Similarly, which aspects of our personality need further honing? After a look within, proceed with looking at the environment—the opportunities and threats. A knowledge of these external factors would tell us whether factors beyond our control could make our goals attainable or not.
Consistent with the vision-mission identified earlier, we could formulate short- and long-term objectives for each of the identified categories. Objectives are quantifiable results, for instance, the position we want to attain at the office or the amount of savings we want to amass by a certain date. Short term may refer to a period of one year; long term to three to five years.
Last, action plans should be crafted according to one’s short-term objectives. I believe these are the ones that come closest to what we have always known as New Year’s resolutions.
The difference, of course, is that these action plans are no longer made blindly. They are made with an awareness of both track record and the direction we wish to take. Then we would feel more in control and more empowered to take action, because each step does not exist in isolation anymore.
More work, yes, but infinitely better results.
Happy New Year, people.
