Make some resolutions - and then sort them!

While it has always been unfashionable to do so, I like New Years Resolutions — well I like the idea anyway. I’d like them more if I was less unsuccessful actually following through on mine. :-)

The naysayers will complain about the how its an arbitrary date. Why the heck can’t you make those resolutions any day of the year?

You can obviously; but I think there’s something about ritual,s however arbitrary they may seem, that’s powerful. The reality is that we seldom think about taking a minute to resolve what we want to do next, even though we always can. Add in the fact that we know many people around us are doing the same thing makes us more likely to actually follow through on them as well.

Anyway, this year I tried some thing a little different.

I made a list — specifically I made two lists.

The first of things that I was happy about in 2013 and the second of things I wished had gone better last year.

Given my nature, the second list was longer than the first but it still made me realize what a great year 2013 had been for me and my family— both personally and professionally. The second list also made it pretty clear what needed to be on my resolutions list for 2014.

Then I sorted both lists — putting the things that mattered most first and comparing stack ranking both the things I was happy with and wished had gone better.

This actually took longer than writing out the list!

It was also even more useful. It made me realize in a very deliberate way that in most cases my effort-to-how-much-time-I-put-in-or-care-ratio was completely off.

I should be a lot happier on a day-to-day basis that things I care more about are actually going well, and similarly should focus a lot more on the things I wanted most to be much better.

One of the things I do for a living — ranking projects, prioritizing actions and making decisions — that I think I’m actually pretty good at in the context of products — was something I wasn’t doing as rigorously for my own life and certainly not making every decision based on.

The Big Rocks story applies especially to your life.

So if you’re making resolutions — good for you! But to make the most out of them make sure you sort em!