2017 New Years Resolution

Well, it’s that time of year again. Time to look back on 2016 (not too hard! 2016 was definitely an… interesting year!) and taking that information, use that to look ahead! Think about what we wanted to achieve in 2016 and whether or not we succeeded or not, think about what we would like to accomplish in 2017.

Let’s start off by reviewing 2016’s Resolutions, shall we?

I have 5 resolutions for 2016, and I actually only really “achieved” one of them, and that was the vaguest one of “Further my life goals”. This took to the form of working on and improving my YouTube channel and moving into contracting/freelancing as a web developer. I improved my YouTube channel by improving the quality of the videos, but recently and unfortunately taken a small hit when I moved flat and was without internet for a long time! So posting my regular weekly videos took a small tumble.

 

But now for 2017. I look back at all the things I wanted to do in 2016, and after doing some hard thinking, I can now make a good list of resolutions and do more to make sure I achieve them!

So, here are a few of my resolutions:

1. I will finish writing my next book
2. If the publisher comes back and rejects my manuscript, I will self-publish it.
3. I will lose weight and get to my target weight

Trust me when I say that is not all of them, but they are 3 of the more significant ones.

Now I talked about making sure I would stick to these resolutions, more so than I did with my 2016 resolutions, and I can tell you exactly why none of them panned out:

I didn’t have a specific deadline.

Now, I can hear you saying “Yes you did, end of December 2016!” but that is a long way away from December 31st 2015! So much so, that when it nears November, say, then you realise you haven’t done them and pretty much say “There’s no way I can do that in a month!” so one might give up.

Me? I just forgot about a few of them!

But in the last few days, I saw this Ted Talk and I think that everyone should watch it. It describes what it is like being me so well, I was shocked!

So basically, the message is that without a firm deadline, my Instant Gratification Monkey will run my brain for 12 months, and the Panic Monster is no where to be seen! So, by giving myself defined deadlines, I can work towards them. Now, they might be planned out well at the beginning but end up with me cramming on the last day (I actually would predict a lot of that!) but I would get it done none-the-less!

It also made me think about my long term goals. Not just my goals for 2017, but my goals for 2018, and 2019, and 2020, which is also very important. I don’t think you can live your life year to year. You have to have the big picture in mind, and work towards that big picture. So, I also have a smaller list of long-term resolutions to make sure I will achieve my big picture one day!

This got very deep for a New Years Resolutions post! But that’s the kind of mood I am in right now.

Having said that, at the time of writing this I am quite ill, so I can’t actually do anything towards my short-term goals or otherwise! But I am planning exactly what I am going to do once I am up and about!

 

What are you resolutions? And how are you going to ensure you meet them? Let me know down below!