Welcome to 2018! I hope you had a wonderful Holiday Season and New Year! Sheri and I spent the weekend with friends, as we’ve done the past few years. It was a wonderful time preparing food for each other, watching a movie (Baby Driver), and a lot of football. Prior to hanging out with our friends, I took some time to think about 2018 and what I envision personally and professionally for this year. I haven’t made a single resolution though and here’s why.
87% of all adults create new goals and resolutions for the New Year, however 50% of those resolute people will abandon them by the end of January. There’s a very small percentage of those who keep them going beyond January who will still be working on them when summer arrives.
I was one of those people who had abandoned my resolutions before the end of January. Most years my resolutions were a wish list only to be quickly forgotten. I’d accomplish a few things but most of my resolutions were still there, waiting for action, most likely ignored due to the busyness of each day, week, and month.
I stopped making resolutions in 2013 after hearing a podcast with Dan Britton, Jimmy Page, and Jon Gordon. They’re the authors of a book, One Word that will change your life. Their premise is resolutions don’t work because the goals we set are “to do” goals rather than “to be” goals.
To do goals limit our success to what we do whereas to be goals measure success by who we become. When we change the focus from what we accomplish to who we become, real transformational change is possible because our heart begins to change, and our actions follow.
They propose a single word theme for the year, instead of creating a list of resolutions for the year. Having one word drives a laser-like focus because this theme applies to all areas of a person’s life for the year. Britton, Page, and Gordon refer to these areas of our life as six dimensions which include:
- Spiritual
- Physical
- Emotional
- Relational
- Mental
- Financial
My words since 2013 have been Believe, Courage, Intentional, Boldness and Connected. One of the most interesting things to note was how my word applied to the six dimensions of my life. Putting them into practice hasn’t always easy but when I have, it has made a huge difference in addressing doubts, questions, and moments of being scared as I stepped into growth and new areas of my life. I have grown personally and professionally these past four years in large part because of these words.
My word for 2018 is “Transformed.” I want 2018 to be a year where real transformation takes place in my personal and professional lives. I’m beginning to outline what they will look like in each of the 6 areas of my life. What I’m truly curious about is how different my life may look if transformational changes occur in these 6 areas.
What word will guide you this year into being a more complete person? You won’t know until you try and you just might find yourself doing away with resolutions too. If you do give this a try, please share your word with me too in an email, tweet, or on my Facebook, Google + or LinkedIn pages. I’d love to hear from you!
