Rebranding....Inside Out

It's that time of the year again....for one, Christmas is around the corner. Besides poor trees being hewn down and decorated in dazzling red ornaments, it is the time that people begin to have hope for change. Changes in personal habits and in other areas of life come in different ways, but most people choose to wait till the last minutes of the last day of the year to do this. Yes, you got the drift. I'm talking about New Year Resolutions. Yep, perhaps like most people out there I did make some of those resolutions last year. Unfortunately, I couldn't tell you what they were....they were eaten by the dog along with my homework.

However, the fact that a handful of people and I didn't get around to implementing our resolutions doesn't mean that making resolutions is a useless activity. I still believe that it could be turned into a fun activity for anyone who cares enough to carry them out. I definitely have a few things in my life that I hope to keep in perspective , come the new year. Sorry, I'm not telling....Therefore, I have decided to devise a strategy to help me remember my resolutions and keep the dog away from them (I'm not kidding, some dogs can be destructive). If you like, you may consider these steps and tell me what you think of them.

6 Steps to Help with Remembering and Executing New Year Resolutions:

1. Decide on whether you really need to make a resolution.

I believe that not everyone needs to make a resolution. Some people are so disciplined that they already have put the change they desire into motion and don't need the conscious effort of remembering. Well, that works for them but not for others. I guess I unconsciously decided to do that this passing year, in a not so helpful way. There were certain parts of my life I believed I overhauled on the go, but others I believe would have received a better boost if I had kept them in view. It is for the latter category that I have chosen to write this post.

2. Find a personal notebook and a pen.

OK, some of us have very good memory. If you are blessed with a perfect brain, I thank God for His blessing in your life. However, a few people would need to write things down to remember them. Someone told me many years ago, I'm sorry I don't really know the source, that "the faintest pencil is better than the sharpest brain." My point? You're better off trusting a faint pencil mark than your brain. OK....I prefer to write things down, but that's only me. If you choose to pen down your resolutions, remember to do so in a notebook. The reason I chose a notebook over of a piece of paper is obvious. A piece of paper could be eaten by a dog, seriously. Imagine that you got your dog really mad and it decided to retaliate. If it knew that you had written your new year resolution on a particular piece of paper..... you never know some animals can read and write. You know what it will do, right? Well assuming that you do have a very good dog that has learned to turn the other cheek, it might mistakenly urinate on your paper. Bad sight....ewww. Good luck drying it out. And then there is the possibility of you or your kid, or any family member choosing to write down a phone number on your paper. You may never see it again. You can also mistakenly drop the paper into a trash can. Have I made my point already? A notebook could reduce the risks of having any of the things listed above happen to you. And I think a pen print will last longer than a pencil mark. I may be wrong; it's your choice.

3. You can post a reminder of the resolution in/on a conspicuous place.

There is the possibility that you may forget about your resolution after it's been nicely written and tucked away in the notebook. Another way, I believe a resolution could be well utilized is by posting it on a conspicuous place. I also said "in" because it could be on the inner side of a closet door. You may choose to turn it into a screen saver on your PC. But when you choose to post it "on" instead of "in" remember that eyes other than yours might view it. Are you comfortable with that? Assuming that it is something as cool as "Be at my desk at least ten minutes before the start of work" then you don't really have anything to hide. Do whatever that makes you comfortable. It's your resolution, remember?

4. Friends and family can be useful partners.

There is no need carrying the burden alone, except your case is unique. You may choose to keep your resolution to yourself or you can enlist the help of family and friends to keep you on track. However, it is imperative to consider with whom you choose to share your thoughts. I suggest that you choose someone who is supportive, a little pushy and invested in your progress. Now you ask, why someone who is pushy? A very loving and supportive family member may not want to offend you if s/he feels that you are staying off track. Your aide may indulge you instead of helping you live up to your potential. However the pushy person will not deny you a scoop of ice cream every now and then, but s/he wouldn't tell you to eat and work it off at the gym later when that might be deceitful. I believe that such an influence could probably ask you if you were still on target on losing weight (for instance) and how you were planning to doing that. S/he won't tell everyone that you aren't keeping your promise to yourself. Anyway, I like a little pushy, because it takes guts to truly watch out for someone else. Be careful, though, about asking someone who has been on your case for whatever reason to help out with this project. His or her enthusiasm to have you finally working on the "problem" could blur their sensitivity senses. Their help might become your peril. Just choose wisely, if you must.

5. Revise, revisit, reconsider.

I believe that it is useful to revise one's resolutions. It is possible that for whatever reason, one made an unattainable pledge to oneself. Revising affords one the opportunity to check for errors of conception. Perhaps, you don't really need to work on giving your colleagues a bear hug, but being an honest communicator. Check for exaggerations. Is the problem as big as you think it is? Maybe you need to go back to some things you thought were not needful at the moment and bring them back into focus. Revisiting these issues would seem as if you were starting all over again, but imagine that you were traveling in the wrong direction, wouldn't it be better to make a u-turn than continue on this journey hoping that it would all make sense somehow? Reconsidering involves deciding whether you need to even make resolutions in the first place. Do you still find them useful? If yes, why? If no, why not?

6. Focus.

In the event that you decide to make and maintain a resolution, I bet it would be useful to focus your attention on making it work. Everything worth doing, is worth doing well; I have learnt. I believe it is the same with resolutions.

I hope these 6 steps could help people, as I, who will easily forget their resolutions to try harder next year. New Year Resolutions could be just a personal tradition or they might provide a useful way to keep oneself abreast of certain social issues such as....saving poor Christmas trees. Have fun making and keeping yours!!!