New Year’s Goals for 2009
Jan 1st, 2009 by Capsun
Hauoli Makahiki Hou! That’s Hawaiian for Happy New Year. May you have happy and safe celebrations with your friends and loved ones.
NEW YEAR’S LAWS
First off, don’t forget that nine new laws went into effect at 12:01 this morning. I think the most interesting is Act 203, which allows the State Procurement Officer to impose daily fines on all procurement officers when they do not comply with his determinations, including those in the Legislative and Judicial Branch. It’s not often that laws apply to all three branches of government. Although, if you thought your fiscal office took a while to process a request before…
NEW YEAR’S GOALS
I have to admit that I haven’t actually made New Year’s resolutions since I was in high school. Maybe the inability to stick with them, as Catherine Toth observes, is one reason. But now that I am years older and years wiser, I know what the problem is: we look at them as resolutions instead of goals.
As my undergraduate leadership professor Bob Duesterhaus taught many of us, we need to have SMART goals. Our goals must be Specific, Measurable, Action-Oriented, Realistic, and Time- and Resource-Constrained. If we intend to keep our resolutions, we must make them our goals. Remember, just because we have the resolve to do something today doesn’t mean we’ll have it tomorrow, next week, next month, or at the end of the year.
For example, “I will read two Twilight series books by July 1” is SMARTer than “I want to read more Twilight books.”
Lifehacker even shared a utility to set and track resolutions, so you can use that to help you with your SMART goals.
So here are my goals for 2009:
- Regarding Capsun’s Corner: I will re-read the Elements of Style, per Leo Babauta’s suggestion (#17 on his list) by February 21. I read this book in high school, but haven’t read it since. I hope it will help me to write more concise blog entries. I know I’m verbose, but that’s also the way I speak, and I write like how I speak. And to make sure I read it, I will buy the book, from a bookstore, by the end of this week.
- Regarding Twitter: Effective immediately, I will Tweet for Twitter and not Facebook, even though my Twitter is linked to my Facebook and may lead to some confusion. I’m sure my Facebook friends are smart enough to figure out if I use Twitter lingo and terms like “RT” (retweet), #pch08 (a hashtag) or @exbor (my Twitter username) it means it’s a Twitter thing. Hey, maybe they’ll take that as a cue to join Twitter, too.
- Regarding my health: I will lose 10 pounds by June 1. To do this, I will workout, swim, or walk home from work at least once a week. I will also buy (and eat!) more fruits and vegetables; I realize that’s cheating a bit because I didn’t say how often or how much I’ll buy them.
- Regarding my relationship: I will get married to my wonderful and beautiful fiancee on Friday, June 19, in Kona. This one absolutely cannot fail to happen!
So that’s it for me. So remember, it’s OK if you don’t have resolutions this year. If you make and have goals instead, your achievements are likely to accumulate, and that’s a good thing.
Go out and have a Happy New Year with New Year’s Goals.
Mahalo!
The only New Year resolution I have made and never broken was my resolution in 1980 something to never make another New Year Resolution! Like you, I set goals — what’s more, I set them when their need or my want makes them apparent, I don’t arbitrarily wait for the first day of the New Year. There was a popular saying when I was a teen, “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Looked at in that light, every day is the first day of a New Year …
Okay, I need to stop now because I’ve confused myself!
Happy New Year!
While I have nothing against Elements of Style, I would recommend reading some of Leo’s posts on WriteToDone, his writing blog. I think it’s more relevant for online writing.
In any event, I think Capsun’s Corner is better written than most blogs anyway. At least you have headings and lists! I think everyone should be required to style their articles. The only blog I read that doesn’t is Mark Cuban.
Everyone else, either make your billions like him, or start using paragraphs and lists =P
Excellent point about setting goals when necessary. The goals I shared were the ones at the top of my to-do list.
Now you tell me – after I just bought the book. It’s OK, it’s worth it, plus I can use it for my work/professional ventures. I’ll just have to read and buy both!
Thank you for the compliment on my writing. It means a lot coming from someone about as persnickety as me. I do try to write well, but I still feel I could do a better job. I joke with another geek that I write for an academic audience, so it tends to be data-intensive and have lots of explanation. But that’s how I am anyway.
I’m already impressed that you’re keeping the commitment to posting daily blog entries. Best wishes in the New Year!
Happy New Year to you, too! As long as readers like you continue to visit Capsun’s Corner, I will continue to write for all of you. Mahalo for your encouraging comment.
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