So. Do you make New Years resolutions? Or are you among the vast, world-weary crowd that considers them useless at best and possibly even an act of self-defeating folly? (“If I write down my intention to lose 20 pounds, I’ll hate myself and maybe even commit seppuku the first time I give in to a Krispy Kreme!”)<\/p>\n
And if you do ponder and put pen (or electrons) to resolutions … what are the chances of you making progress toward keeping them?<\/p>\n
I don’t say, “What are the chances of you keeping them?” because I suspect it really is self-defeating folly to hold ourselves to every resolve. It’s the progress part that’s most interesting.<\/p>\n
I confess. I’m a resolution maker. And like most everybody else, not so great a resolution keeper. But years ago, I got a pretty good eye opening on the progress aspect of resolutions.<\/p>\n
When I was young, I was shy, tongue-tied, and inarticulate. Year after year, one of my resolutions would be, “Become more articulate.” <\/p>\n
Bad resolution. It doesn’t give any “how.” Doesn’t set any measurable goals. No milestones. Clearly a resolution doomed to failure.<\/p>\n
Eventually, I quit resolving stuff like that — or resolving anything, for that matter because it all seemed so useless (anyhow, I was going through my Very Sophisticated period, and Very Sophisticated people don’t do anything as corny as make resolutions). Then about five years later, while throwing out old paperwork, I ran across one of those resolution lists — and realized that not only had I become more articulate; I had also achieved nearly every other long-term goal on the list. Or had at least moved in the desired direction.<\/p>\n
Now maybe I just became more articulate because I matured. That’s part of it. But as I looked at that tattered list of wishes-mostly-come-true, I realized that, by writing them down and putting them into my own head, even if I didn’t thereafter pay conscious attention, I had gradually moved my life toward where I wanted it to be.<\/p>\n
—–<\/p>\n
I expect a lot of people here get that. Maybe you want to move to an off-grid homestead, for instance. But that looks impossible from where you are right now. The money’s not there. The spouse doesn’t want to go. Your job keeps you in the city. Your health has gone way south on you (as happened to one comment-section regular), etc., etc. The prospects look dim.<\/p>\n
But simply by keeping the goal somewhere within, you end up gradually sliding in your dream direction despite the odds — sometimes making choices that you’re unaware carry you toward the goal. A job comes up and you take it on its merits, not fully considering that it puts you near a place where real estate is more affordable. You get a divorce, and once the emotional chaos has washed over you, you realize it leaves you free to make new choices. And maybe the resulting lack of money even helps teach you needed saving and scrounging skills. Who knows? The challenges you have have to meet due to your bad health make you a stronger, more determined, maybe even more confident, person because you know you can overcome obstacles. Or maybe bad health helps you realize you need to re-scale your goal to something more attainable. A little money comes your way and instead of blowing it on a new car, as you might have in the past, you invest in preparedness. Or land. Or how-to books. And on it goes until one day you find yourself standing right next to your “impossible” goal.<\/p>\n
Actions, decisions, and opportunities that might have seemed random turn out to have been almost frighteningly purposeful.<\/p>\n
Call it kismet. Call it your unconscious mind at work. Call it God’s guidance. Call it what you will. But writing down the goals and writing them down again and revisiting and refining them really does make a difference in getting you where you want to go — even if it takes a long time and the path takes some pretty strange twists.<\/p>\n