I take New Year's resolutions pretty seriously, as it's depressing to make promises to yourself that you don't keep. That being said, here are some of my resolutions for 2005:
- Evangelize the Semantic Web.
- Buy a house.
- Write music.
- Have a full preventative medical exam.
- Try snowboarding.
- Travel to China, Russia, Thailand, Japan, Spain, Miami and Indonesia.
- Become a US citizen.
- Get LASIK surgery.
- Find a new personal trainer.
- Play a racquet sport regularly.
I have some other resolutions, of course, but they shall remain secret for now.
It's refreshing to see that there are still few of us who take "resolutions" quite seriously. As a kid, my mum had this sergeant manner that on every 1st of every year, me and my four brothers had to sit down with our resolutions notebook. Each of us had a designated resolutions notebook where we would write down our most important goals for the year.. and thus far for the past 20+ years I have been doing this every year. Of course before we wrote our "new" resolutions for the year, my mum reviewed each or our notebooks and checked which resolutions we had achieved which ones did we not during that year. And so there was a system of "accountability." We didn't just have ourselves accountable for achieving what we had set out, but also there was an external party, (my mum) who ascertained whether or not we had. This I believe is a critical component of achieving goals. The average person is not disciplined enough to hold itself accountable, for some odd reason. However, when we have someone else (mum, the boss, a husband, a wife etc.) 'checking' up on what we said we are going to do it becomes more important to make sure we do not loose 'face' in their eyes. It becomes important that they do not loose faith in our word. I wonder if there is a website on the web where one can register one's resolutions, and have an 'external' system, who reviews them, and hold us accountable at the end of the year, similar to what my mum used to do when I was a kid. It's very interesting looking back and perusing through previous years and analyzing what I achieved, what I didn't what happened etc. I really like your resolutions. It's funny I share three similar ones. You are buying a house, I am looking at some additional real estate investments, I too will like to travel to Spain and South America, like you I am a music aficionado - however I will like to record a demo CD. From a physical health perspective, I am not looking for a personal trainer, but have looked into some martial arts/personal defense classes - have you heard of Krav Magna? http://www.kravmaga.com/. From a business perspective I have some grandiose ideas to grow ALTEEVA to the next level - the key to this growth is I am going after some critical client's in my industry. These are some ideas I have been thinking over. For me the next step is taking out my resolutions notebook for 2004, checking those resolutions not fully achieved, reviewing them, and starting with resolutions for 2005. The process is to name the resolutions, time frame to achieve it, and methodology. Now I am looking for someone to hold me 'accountable.' Any suggestions? :-)
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Posted by: Pilar | Jan 01, 2005 at 10:57 AM