The New Year Dawns and we Ponder Goals

By Judge David Langham

There is a circle of stones in England, Stonehenge, which was constructed about 5,000 years ago. The pyramids in Egypt are similarly ancient. Around the time of Christ, someone constructed pictures in the ground south of Lima Peru. These “Nazca Lines” depict various shapes and can only be fully appreciated from altitude. These sites are all visited, studied, and written about. They are among the wonders in our world. What they all have in common, though, is that they are the result of someone’s efforts and they have stood the test of time. 

We personally pale by comparison; we perhaps daydream from time to time about our futures. But, for the most part we each become ensconced in our days’ activities. In the realm of workers’ compensation, it is likely that at least once in a while our daily tasks include mundane, repetitive, and mindless tasks. The world is full of those despite the best efforts of technology to relieve us. What will we do that will persist in 5,000 years?

According to a survey published a year ago in Inc., “about 60 percent of us admit that we make New Year's resolutions but only about 8 percent of us are successful in achieving them.” PsychCentral says that it is more like 40-45% of us that make resolutions. It is a certainty that no one knows for sure how many of us actually go through the ritual of making goals, annual resolutions, or even finding the time to focus at all on our own self-improvement or growth. We are, too often, bogged down in our own day-to-day. We are overshadowed by the immediate needs of our job, our families, and our lives. Self-reflection is a luxury. 

That 8% is actually a bit depressing if you think about it. It is perhaps a contributor to our personal inclination to (not) make a resolution? If our personal history is replete with annual examples of our optimistic prediction, followed by a seemingly inevitable failure to persevere, perhaps it is human nature that we would eventually begin to shy away from making further such self-commitments? It may be we simply become disenchanted with the annual ritual, abandon the 40-60% and just stop making goals?

And, why is there this focus on resolutions and goals only as a year closes? It is not only about individuals, organizations also tend to spend a year’s end focused on the next year. 

PsychCentral notes that we generally “have a natural bent toward self-improvement.” The author there concedes that “the New Year is an arbitrary date,” but that some have concluded this time of year “gives us time and a goal date to prepare for the change, to fire up for the shifts we plan to make.” In short, we are naturally focused on the next year as a result of the natural feelings that come with the closure of the last year. But, in a micro sense, we get that same opportunity with each new day perhaps. 

I am in the 60% (or 40-45%). I have not always been in that number. But, professionally, I got into the habit of setting goals many years ago. It made sense to me that the success of my business should be considered and contemplated periodically. I learned that goals are both necessary and appropriate. Jim Collins, in Built to Last, described the need for “big, hairy, audacious goals” (BHAG, or “Bee Hags”). These are the ones that change the very direction of an entity. I recommend the book and the process. I know many successful people who have read it. 

But, I caution that BHAGs alone are insufficient. I would suggest that similarly a New Year’s resolution(s) alone is insufficient. We are instinctively incremental. Our brains are hard-wired to enjoy success and lament missteps and failures. We are a strange mixture of intellect and emotion, which would be difficult enough to manage even if the two influences remained forever static and fully understood.  But they do not, and some days our intellect prevails while other days those emotions drive us. 

In addition to the larger goals, the horizon focus, we must also have objectives. Those are the shorter-term increments that we see as helping us along the way. With them in our focus, we can nonetheless work toward the larger goal, while focused upon something more manageable. They are easier for us to accept and comprehend. The objectives are the increments that allow us the motivation of small successes, and our probable or eventual failures in such small doses are less likely to ruin our overall resolve. 

What do we resolve to do each year? The Inc. survey revealed the following top ten resolutions. It is fair to say that many of these are BHAGs. They require life-changing, commitment, and therefore a great deal of strength. The Inc. top ten from last December are:

“1. Diet or eat healthier (71 percent)”

“2. Exercise more (65 percent)”

“3. Lose weight (54 percent)”

“4. Save more and spend less (32 percent)”

“5. Learn a new skill or hobby (26 percent)”

“6. Quit smoking (21 percent)”

“7. Read more (17 percent)”

“8. Find another job (16 percent)”

“9. Drink less alcohol (15 percent)”

“10. Spend more time with family and friends (13 percent)”

Some of these are very ambitious (“quit smoking”). Others are vague (“exercise more”). A friend jokes with me that his “only exercise is walking to the kitchen for a snack.” Therefore, for him, walking to the mailbox would qualify as “exercising more.” But, would that be of any real benefit? In addition, any of these is likely amenable to some quantification and some intermediate objectives. What if we changed each as follows:

“1. Diet or eat healthier (71 percent)” to “stop eating ________.” Perhaps “fast food?” 

“2. Exercise more (65 percent)” to “walk ___ steps daily/weekly” or “attend yoga ___ weekly?”

“3. Lose weight (54 percent)” to “lose one pound per month.”

“4. Save more and spend less (32 percent)” to “deposit $______ monthly to saving?”

“5. Learn a new skill or hobby (26 percent)” to “spend _____ hours per week on ______?”

“6. Quit smoking (21 percent)” to “decreasing my daily cigarettes by 1 each week until I hit 0?”

“7. Read more (17 percent)” to “spend _____ minutes each evening reading?”

“8. Find another job (16 percent)” to “applying for ____ jobs weekly?”

“9. Drink less alcohol (15 percent)” to “decreasing my weekly alcohol to _____ drinks?”

“10. Spend more time with family and friends (13 percent)” to “spending ____ hours per week with family and friends.”

These are more definite. They are measurable and incremental. Rather than looking back in December 2020 and asking “did I drink less alcohol” or “did I read more,” these are measurable on a weekly or daily basis. With that definiteness comes the probability that there will be shortcomings; in a given week one might fail to submit those job applications or resumes. But, that will not mean failure for the year, or abandonment of the resolution or BHAG. That weekly shortcoming will merely mean that one must strive harder to pick up the gauntlet again the next day or week. Each can be an incremental new beginning. 

We all are capable of self-motivation. And, it is likely that we each have at least one or two BHAGs lurking in our personal or professional lives. We may not acknowledge them often enough, or devote sufficient time working towards them. But, we have them. We may not build the next pyramid or any other such grandiose monument that will stand the test of thousands of years. But, we have them. Will they remain in the closet forever? Or, will we make a commitment to address one of them in 2020? Will we make a goal for ourselves, for no one else’s benefit, knowledge, or business? Will we commit to ourselves personally to make one of our own goals real?

I set resolutions every year. I have a history, to be kind, of “mixed results.” But, “tomorrow is the first blank page of a 365-page book. Write a good one.” By the same token, next week, month, and year could be the best of your life; the best of your life by your measure, on your terms. I will make resolutions again for 2020. I will focus on progress in my life, and strive against odds to reach them. I will not succeed 100% of the time, but I admit that at the outset. I accept there will be a shortcoming. Despite that potential, I will strive. 

In the end, we are unlikely to have a perfect journey or even perfect intent or effort. Perhaps we cannot really even realistically commit to consistently being our individual best. I will focus therefore on striving to do better in 2020, incrementally and daily. Each of us likely has some goal upon which we wish to improve. Find it. Spend some quiet time reflecting upon it. Set a goal for 2020 and some intermediate objectives to help you get there. Do it today, or whenever this year you identify it. 

If you conclude next December that goal was unfulfilled, reflect on the how and why. Then focus again on the journey, set a new destination, and begin again. Surround yourself with people that will support you in that effort, and find ways to support others similarly striving. This endeavor in which we find ourselves, after all, is a community. Let’s remember that, foster that, and appreciate that in 2020.