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Posted By Aaron Marcelli on December 29, 2009

I’m not sure what your view is on New Year’s resolutions, but I used to be all about them. Starting probably when I was in high school, I would always use the last days of December to plan how I was going to use the following year to become the best person ever and accomplish more than was humanly possible. Yearly my outlandish goals to read the Bible through, read x amount of books, and get everyone I knew saved would lead to disappointment and little, if any, actually progress. I struggled with unrealistic goals and once February roles around and you realize it’s not going to happen you tend to give up all together.

Last year though I found an approach that works much better. Rather than try to change the world (or even yourself) in just 365 days, why not create a list of things (some small, some larger) that could be done over the course of a year. I ended up jotting down 50 of them about a year ago – about one per week. I then posted them and marked them off as I did them. Using this system allowed me in 2009 to……

Get my APR lowered

Fix my cracked car window

Read a book in a day

Go to a concert

Get a date

Give money to a stranger

Take a vacation other than to see family

Run a half mile without slowing

Watch all the seasons of “The Office”

Go to lunch with my pastor

Unfortunately, there were still a few things I had planned to do but did not. Such as:

Update my GPS

Get an article printed in a magazine

Start writing on my second book

Go through all my class notes from college

Move to a new house/apartment

I still feel this way of setting goals helped me accomplish a lot. Some of the things I put on my list were small things I had just been putting off. Some of them were bigger and required a lot of work. On some the timing just wasn’t right and on others I was over-achieved (example: I wanted to get a date and now I’m getting married in a couple months).

Maybe this system would work for you if you find yourself using the New Year to set goals and you struggle like I used to in keeping the commitments.

And in case you’re interested, here are some of the things I have on tap for 2010:

Go to a driving range

Pay off the debt I have to myself

Get to my desired weight

Go to a live stand up club

Be a vegetarian for a month (something I also did last year)

Whitewater rafting

Finish church planter training

Raise enough support to quit my day job my the end of the year

Visit the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Find a regular volunteering position in Chattanooga

Finish the magazine article about my book

Go through and file all my class notes from college

Category: My Life / Personal
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