the air

As the first month of 2007 wraps up, how well are you doing with your new year’s resolutions? Chances are that many of you are not accomplishing your resolutions due to many random commitments. I’m even willing to venture out and say that you keep procrastinating your goals until a later date. Why? Most of us are used to procrastinating because it prolongs the painful task of actually doing something. So how can you overcome your procrastination? It’s not as hard as you think, but it does require an active participation and some dedication. If you’re not up for it, why are you even bothering to make any goals? If you’re willing to put off your resolutions, then you have enough determination in you to accomplish them.

In my opinion, there is only one sure way of accomplishing any goal. Many pundits will say that there are hundreds of ways to accomplish a goal and I agree with them. There is no guaranteed way to accomplish a goal, but there are ways that will “force” you to accomplish goals. First off, don’t think of your goal as a goal. Rather, think of it as a commitment. Too many people put off goals simply because they know they can. Why can’t you put off a meeting? Why can’t you put off that important project deadline? The reason why you can’t put off these commitments is because of the consequences. You can be censured at work or even fired. Although you won’t get “fired” by putting off your new year’s resolutions, you should attach some form of a punishment. Say your goal is to work out for 30 minutes every day. One day, you fail to accomplish that goal, you should punish yourself. Your punishment could be no watching or recording your favorite TV show. It could be that you can’t go out that weekend because you missed your goal. The only problem with these punishments is that you have no one to enforce them. This is where your inner strength and discipline come in handy.

So how do you get self-discipline? It takes practice and dedication. You have to be willing to force yourself to do things even if you don’t want to. You have to be willing to resist things even when it seems impossible. Controlling your emotions and desires is a sure way of developing some self-respect and discipline. Sounds like a lot of work doesn’t it? It really is. It took me over six years to develop a functional sense of discipline and self-respect. My whole point is that by procrastinating, you really aren’t justifying anything to yourself. In fact, you are hurting yourself by not sticking to your own commitments. My advice is this: if you can put off some goal, you can certainly blow off your manager. If you argue that it’s not the same thing, my argument is that just because no one can enforce your goals doesn’t mean it is of less importance than your boss. So do yourself a favor and get going on those New Year’s resolutions. You have about 11 more months to go, and time is ticking away. Good luck!

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