New Years Resolutions: A Family History Goal You Can Achieve
The end of January might be a time when you are thinking about lying those New Years Resolutions to rest. What were your New Years Resolutions? Drop 10 lbs.? Finish your novel? Did any of you make family history resolutions? It seems as though we’re always talking about setting resolutions, it’s a giddy topic of conversation, the desire to improve upon the year before, and it also seems as though failure is expected and the impending doom draws nearer from the first morning you utter your resolutions, or set them to paper. It’s just a matter of time.
No one really talks about how to grab hold of the resolutions and make them happen. That’s what we’re going to do here in two parts, the first is the actual composition of the goal. So, lets take a minute to discuss what constitutes an achievable goal.
I’m a big fan of the checklist. I love lists. I love checking things of the list. For me, goals, especially big goals, are best achieved in small accomplishable steps, and are finite, explicitly achievable in a set limit of time. For example, an example of a goal I’m sure I could never manage would be: I’m going to run every day. For the first week I might make an effort, I might load the iPod up, lace up the running shoes and go outside, but there would be excuses immediately (such as “Um, it’s WAY too cold to be running in Minnesota right now!”) which would make my run which perhaps I initially intended to be three miles, one mile by the time I left the house, and then when I got around the block, I’d say “eh, that was… probably pretty close to a mile.. and at least I got out here!” The next day would probably go similarly, except, since I did it the day before, the excitement would be worn off.. each day I’d become less likely to achieve even the smallest semblance to an active running schedule.
On the other hand, an example of a great goal for me would be: I’m going to Run the 10K this Spring, I need to be training to accomplish this. There is an end goal in sight. I can stay excited about the final result. I have a measurable resistance that I will need to build. I can start by running around the block, sure.. but I know day two has to be an improvement on day one in order to achieve a reasonable fitness level by whatever date the 10 K is going to be.
Do you have some ideas of family history resolutions that you plan to acheive in 2011? Leave a comment and let me know what they are. Next week we’ll be talking about some common family history related resolutions and how to put them into motion!
Related Posts:
Recent Comments