Resolve to Achieve

We have entered another New Year in the New Decade. What is special about it? Is
it because it is 1-1-11(01Jan2011)? Or you belong to the category who say yawn!
Another year, so what’s new?

Whether you are excited about the beginning of a new year or bored that nothing
much is happening, do you realize that the answer to your feeling lies in YOU and
not the year or the magic of numbers?

Why are majority of us excited about entering a new year? It is because we expect
it to be better than last year. This means we want an improvement. If we just
‘wish/hope’ that it should be better, then we are in store for another
disappointment. The saying “If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail” says it in a
nutshell.

Let us see what can make this year better:

1. Analyze why you felt this year should be better: This means there are
certain aspects of last year which you did not like. Is it about your health,
career, friends, grades, pocket money, weight, free time, etc.? List what you
want to change. Focus on those aspects which you can change- not those
which depend on others. You can choose to manage your time and spend
more time with your friends but you cannot say “I want my friend to come to
my place more often” or “I want the teachers to be more fair in giving
marks”. These are not in our control. You can think of losing 5 kilos or
learning a new skill but you can’t expect that others should be nice to you.

2. Prioritize the top ten things: From the above list, understand which are
the ten things that are most important to you. Now list them in the order of
priority. Write clearly what you want to achieve- your GOAL. Each GOAL can
be broken down to sub-goals. Make sure you have activities listed to achieve
the goals and how you can measure the success of those activities.

3. Identify Motivating factors: For each of the items in the list, list the
reasons which are motivating you to take them up. Reasons for ‘Why’ you
want to achieve them. These will help you to be on the track in the long run.
Identify the people who can help you achieve this. These could be your
friends, parents, uncles/aunts, or a teacher/colleague. Some one who can
inspire your/ gently remind you whenever you are feeling low or going off the
track

4. Plan: Prepare a plan of action to achieve. Have a GOAL oriented approach.

Each of the ten things is a GOAL. Answer the following questions in planning
to achieve your goal:
 a. What time frame do you need?

b. What resources do you need-money, material, people?

c. What can go wrong? How can you take care-any back-up plan?

d. What are the limitations?

e. How do you say you have achieved your goal? Measurable

criteria for determining success(SMART-Specific, Measurable,
Achievable, Realistic, Time Bound)

5. Track your progress: Start acting as per the plan. CHECK your progress as
per the plan every week. If you are doing as per the plan, continue. If not,
understand why you are not able to. Apply correction factors, re-plan and
continue.

6. Rewards: It is very important to reward yourself for the goals achieved. This
will motivate you to carry on further. “Nothing succeeds like success”. The
joy of achievement will give you the impetus to achieve more.

7. Lessons Learned: Each week, take a few minutes to jot down what are
going on well from your plan and what are not. This will help you to know
what works for you-best practices and what do not-lessons learned. These
become valuable inputs to your next plan.

Try to plan your activities so that you can bring small improvements
in the areas you want which can be incorporated in your daily
activities. We all know “Little drops of water make a mighty ocean”
similarly, small improvements add up to a BIG change.

Look at it this way- one small improvement a day-say getting up early by

5.30 AM, walking for 30 minutes every day, or saying no to pizzas, start small
and achieve BIG. One improvement a day adds up to 365 in an year. You
would have added 365 better qualities and/ skills to yourself by the end of
the year. Practise these steps to make this year different, more satisfying
and successful-Resolve to Achieve.