Last week I heard a talk where it’s said about 8% keep their NY resolutions.

Surprising, I actually thought it’s lower than that.. 😛

Anyway.. I know I’ll be writing this one day. Some friends ask, so here you go.

Hope you’ll find it useful.

Why bother?

In 2008, young and stupid, I had in mind a big purpose in life (not necessarily a good one. In fact, come to think of it, a bad one). So I made ten NY resolutions (for 2009).

As life would have it, what you have in mind often ends differently, both in destination and on the journey itself. I’m thankful for that, because personally I think I get more out of it than I had set out to achieve. More, and also beyond just the resolutions themselves.

Anyway, I’ve since continued with the practice. 2020 is the 12th year going! At the end of each yr, I reflect on the year past and make ten resolutions for the following year.

Looking back on the past 11 or so yrs, briefly, some good reasons I can think of for doing this:

• It makes time for me to consciously pause, sit down, and think
• It reveals my desires and priorities
• It helps me deliberately recognise my weaknesses / rooms for improvements
• It helps generate ideas and concrete action plan
• It helps me see the progress I’ve made, how far I’ve come
• A tool to keep me on track through the year
• It acts as a compass of what’s important when I forget
• It keeps a view on the year so I know where my time’s gone for the yr
• In review, it tells how I’ve changed over the years (interesting to see what’s in my list years ago 😐)

Additionally,

• It creates conversation topic (or a blog post 😛)
• I do find it fun!

How I do it

I’m sure there’re many ways to do this, but this is how I normally do it.

I think of:

Some areas of life

Physical? Social? Spiritual? Financial? Personal discipline? Character growth? Time management?

Whatever, just a way to categorise things.

The resolution

What I set out to do / what I hope to achieve in those areas? It can include things like:

• Getting rid of bad habits or developing new good habits
• Stop doing something or start doing something else
• Doing more of this or less of that
• Growing in certain areas
• Getting certain things done

The accountability

I used to put ‘measurement’ here (= how I quantify it, e.g., at least 12 books read), but I realised not everything can be meaningfully quantified.

So now I just call this part ‘accountability’ or action item/s. It can be measured easily or it cannot be easily measured, I’m not very concerned as long as I do them sufficiently.

Here’s a sample from my 2019 list (I’ve cut down some wordings so it’s more reader friendly, but you get the idea).

	Area	Resolution	Accountability	Jan	Feb
1	Me & God	Devotion	Daily morning devotion using X’s devotional
2	Me & God	Prayer life	Daily prayer using Prayer Mate app
3	Me & God	Cultivate trust and hope in God	Go to God first in times of gladness / trials
4	Me & church family	Accountability, support, growth & fellowship	-Catch ups -Keep a prayer list -Ongoing 1-to-1 bible study
5	Me & other family / friends	Nurture relationships	-Ongoing catch up schedule -Keep a prayer list
6	Personal	Downtime to avoid burnout	-Limit activities/wk to max. x times -Reflection + writing min. x times -Read min. x books
7	Personal	Keeping fit	Exercise min. x/wk
8	Personal	Eliminate time wasted on internet	Zero random browsing
9	Expenses	Intentional giving	Keep aside x% to give away
10	Expenses	Sensible spending	Personal spending on self <= on others

Then I track how I’m going month by month, noting down the status as I go.

At the end of the year, I reviewed where I’ve done well or poorly, reflected on the year and start drafting a list for the following year. Some would be new, others the same but I’m nudging it along a bit further (i.e., no change in ‘Resolution’, only a change in the ‘Accountability’ column)

Things to note..

It doesn’t mean you’re an aimless bum if you don’t do this. Many are so productive for years and years of their lives without it. Each to their own, but it happens to work for me.

Some things to note:

• Probably only makes sense if you care about knowing yourself and intentionally working on it, else there’s no point in wasting time on making a list you’re not going to keep.
• Start time doesn’t really matter. The reason why I do NY resolution (instead of say, mid-year or any particular date of the yr) is that it happens to be convenient and timely around holiday period to sit and think.
• Sustainability is key as I’m doing it for the long haul. I aim to stretch and not snap.
• Once made, they’re not carved on stone, they can change through the year as appropriate (e.g., circumstance changes, already met, etc)
• Some of them may work hand in hand (e.g., more down time helps with getting more exercise).
• Some may require a method of tracking e.g., spending.
• However you do it, it’ll likely evolve over time.

For 2019, my starting point was the main areas of my life e.g., between me and God, me and my church family, me and other family and friends..

For 2020, I do it slightly differently. My starting point is where I think I lack in the past year (thinking this way generates the list quicker I found) –

• where I’ve done poorly,
• where I’ve had troubles or struggles, or
• where I know I should do better.

From that, my ten 2020 resolutions fall under one of these categories:

• Physical health
• Spiritual health
• Social commitment
• Personal matters

Anyway,.. that’s all I have to say for now. Try it some time, it’s rather fun 😀