Happy New Year! I hope you all had a great Hogmanay and are now fully recovered, ready and eager to grab 2010 and the opportunities it offers.

I’ve said before that I don’t like New Year resolutions, I consider them an excuse for failure. However that doesn’t mean ignoring the change of year. It’s still a powerful symbol that we can harness to boost our motivation and personal development.

Even though I don’t do specific “resolutions” I do use the New Year as an opportunity to look back over the recent past and forward to the future. It’s a good time to take stock of where I am and where I want to be – as well as who I want to be.

So although I don’t do “task based” resolutions (eg “go to the gym twice a week”) I do think about more general achievement based plans (eg “live a healthier lifestyle”). At this time I find it more useful to concentrate on the outcome rather than the method.

Of course these objectives need eventually to be translated into actions. So the New Year is also a good time to look at the system(s) I’m using for this (GTD, Eisenhower matrix, Pomodoro, etc) and make sure that a) they meet my needs and b) they’re up to date. Essentially I treat the New Year as a time not for low level resolutions but for a much higher level annual review.

As a wise sage once said: “Look to the future now, it’s only just begun”.

Today is the 1st of December. A month from now millions of people around the world will be making New Year resolutions.

Most will be broken within a few weeks.

As I’ve said before I consider New Year resolutions an excuse for failure. So I don’t make them. Instead I’ll be making some resolutions today.

These aren’t “early New Year resolutions”, that would achieve nothing. Instead I refer to these as old year resolutions. Everyone knows New Year resolutions are always broken, so if “old year” resolutions are the opposite then it makes sense for them to be kept. That may be simplistic but sometimes the simple things are the ones the subconscious mind clings to.

What do you think? Will you be joining me in making old year resolutions today? If you do, I hope you’ll be sticking to them long after most other people have broken their New Year ones.

Well, the New Year is almost upon us. I hope you all have a happy hogmanay and a great 2009!

As usual many people will be making their New Year Resolutions, often involving fitness, smoking or relationships.

Not me. I made my last New Year Resolution long ago. What was it? “Don’t make any more New Year Resolutions”. It’s probably the only resolution I’ve ever kept – which is the point of this post.
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I’m a great fan of pinball and spent much of my life as a student happily flipping the silver ball.

When you’re playing pinball you don’t just bash the flippers and hope for the best. There are certain shots to aim for and certain goals to achieve. Ideally you bring the ball to rest on a flipper then take your time and make a carefully aimed shot.

Unfortunately a pinball table rarely lets you have an ideal shot. Instead there are times when you’re main concern is saving the ball. There’s no time to plan carefully and make sure your shot’s perfectly on target. That’s especially true in multi-ball mode where the table throws everything at you.

Life’s like that too.
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