June Year's Resolutions

A June Year's Resolution is a New Year's Resolution that starts June 1st instead of January 1st. This is assuming the original act of self improvement has failed from January to June and it is time to start over with something else. Just yesterday I was saying to a co-worker of mine that I couldn't believe it's already June and then exclaimed... "what in the world have I done with my year!?! It's half over!" This is potentially one of the worst topics I could have picked to write about on my blog because this is typically my attitude towards goals... My June Year Resolution this year is to learn how to more effectively set and achieve goals. It seems that goal-setting or the inability to achieve goals is one of man's most natural downfalls. We wouldn't even need to set goals if we were accomplishing what we wanted/needed when we wanted/needed. They would just happen. I don't set a goal to sleep through both of my alarms every morning. It just happens. See how that works?

As one that is minimally experienced in the making/achieving/failing of goals, these are a few things I have discovered.

Making lists helps. It is easier to remember things once you've written them down. At a legal conference I recently attended, one of the speakers asked for a show of hands of who makes To-Do lists. Nearly everyone raised their hands. Bravo for the paralegals! Next he asked for a show of hands who has ever made a To-Do list, done something that WASN'T on the list, and subsequently added it to the list just so they could check it off as "done." Again, a good number of people raised their hands. Why is this so? I'll tell you. Accomplishing our goals typically further propels us to accomplish more goals. There is nothing like having an incompleted list as the physical evidence of your almost-accomplishments to stare you right in the face. Especially if you're one to tape it to your mirror.

I hate cliches but some of them are true. I.E. - The easiest way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time. An almost sure-fire way to goal failure is being overloaded with either the amount of goals or by unrealistic goals to the point where you don't accomplish anything, then quickly plunge into anti-goal mode. You will recognize the anti-goals as things like: Goal- stop eating any food that contains more than 13 calories. Anti-goal- eating your weight in Ben & Jerry's. (Tangent: my favorite depiction of diet related frustrations is this. Close tangent).

With this criteria in mind, my June Year Resolution will look something like this:
1) Accomplish more goals
By the end of the year, I want to disguard my previous attitude of ignoring my goals and relate more to this picture: