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Decision Making vs. New Year's Resolutions

Written by: Elizabeth J. Macarthur

Article Overview: Everyone wants to have a successful year. And we all know to do that we have to set out some type of goals or resultions or decisons to do that. Let's make this year the year we overcome the obstacles of not achieveing or even not setting New Year's resolutions by reframing the whole process.

Decision Making vs. New Year's Resolutions

Happy New Years everyone and welcome to 2010! I know that this year has the potential to be a very powerful one for everyone and anyone.

With New Year's resolutions being the hot topic this month, I would like to offer up my thoughts on the subject. Let's start with a definition of New Year's resolution which I found at the online Wikipedia Encyclopedia which states: A New Year's resolution is a commitment that an individual makes to a project or the reforming of a habit, often a lifestyle change that is generally interpreted as advantageous.

It continues on to say that: Recent research shows that while 52% of participants in a resolution study were confident of success with their goals, only 12% actually achieved their goals. Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

Although this is a powerful definition in it's own right, and definitely something that could support us for the viewpoint of the definition, from my perspective the term, "New Years' Resolution" has certainly been well used, overused, and for some leaves a bad taste in their mouth.

I equate this due to the implied pressure put upon society to make their "New Years' resolutions" on January 1. Everyone has to do it. And you better be prepared as someone is bound to ask you what they are. So if you don't want to feel guilty for not making a few, you have to do something. This is then followed up by the subsequent disappointment and guilt for those who do not follow through on these resolutions. So even thought its definition is powerful, the negative perception of New Year's resolutions is even more powerful for some.

Maybe you're one of the lucky ones who do follow through on their resolutions and is able to use this as a great tool to set some wonderful goals for yourself for the year. And to you, I say congratulations.

And since statistics show that it is a small percentage of people who actually stick with the New Year's resolutions and achieve their results, no wonder New Year's resolutions have received a not so great a reputation over the years.

May people just laugh at the thought of making New Year's resolutions because they do not believe or see themselves making it happen. It has become a joke to many who are not interested at all in making any New Year's resolutions. Why would we when statistics show that it is unlikely that it will be achieved. The odds are against it, or are they?

I fell under the category of the person who would make resolutions, not keep them, and then beat myself up for a while because I didn't keep them. So I decided to not make any more resolutions. But that wasn't sitting right with me either.

So what if I were to frame it up differently, change the wording into something that would empower me, get me excited again and back on track to making those lifestyle changes I really do want to make?

Well, this is what I had to do. The very words "New Year's Resolution" immediately brought a negative tone to me because of all of the failures and I wanted to do something different. I still believe that January is a great time to make some shifts and changes in our lives. It is a new year which gives us the opportunity to start it off with a sense of freshness.

So I decided to make some decisions instead. The online Wikipedia Encyclopedia describes decision making as the following: Decision making can be regarded as an outcome of mental processes (cognitive process) leading to the selection of a course of action among several alternatives. Every decision making process produces a final choice. The output can be an action or an opinion of choice.

Decisions are something that I can get excited about and do. So come January, I do a couple of things. First, I sit down and make a list of all of the decisions that I made happen for myself in the previous year. It was quite interesting this past year because there was something in every month. These were not necessarily all things that I decided in January to do, however those were included as well. These positive experiences of making decisions and seeing results over the previous year, motivates me to do it again.

Then I consider, based on what I know today, what are some things that I would like to see happen for myself, both personally and professionally, over the next year or even over the next 90 days. From that I make my decisions as to what I am ready and willing to work on now. This sends my intention out to the Universe to attract that which I need to complete these decisions.

This year I have also started what I call my "Decisions 2010" book. This is a little notebook that I will be recording my decisions in over the year. I will also be recording significant actions and events that are seeing these decisions to completion. As we all know, writing down goals, or decisions in my case, substantially increases the success rate of it happening.

I can also refer back to this book at any time to remind myself of the positive results that I have achieved. This book will also help keep me accountable to my own decisions. And this is just the beginning as I have made a decision to continue making decisions throughout the year, recording these decisions, and recording the results.

I find that January is a great time to get myself organized for the year, back on track after the holiday season, and feeling positive and hopeful about what I can create for myself over the next year By making good decisions for myself, that support myself, and that I can get excited about helps to set the right tone for the year for me.

So if you have not yet made a list of all of your accomplishments for last year, no matter how big or small, I invite you to do so. And then I invite you to get yourself a nice little notebook for your "Decisions 2010" journal and have yourself the best year yet.

Next Month Elizabeth will be adding to her product line some energy health products known to significantly reduce all types of pain, know matter how small or large. Announcements to follow shortly.

With love and gratitude,

Elizabeth

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Article Tags: decisions, New Years Resolutions, obstacles



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