By Bankole Williams
Let me start off by talking about my frustration with New Year Resolutions. I recognize that people have different resolutions for New Year; so people set goals, but they don’t get goals. And that’s my frustration; the fact that you spend so much time committing towards doing something and at the end of the year you find yourself reflecting and then regretting, and I want to deal with this.
How do you ensure that the goals you set are the goals you will get?
The year 2014 belongs to those who have a routine. In this New Year, a lot of people have resolutions. Did you have resolutions for last year? How many of them did you accomplish? I can bet your answer is not a lot. So the real question is that were they really resolutions? Because if they were resolutions I can bet you would achieve them. Or where they mere wishes – expressions of the figment of our imaginations. The truth is that if we are to be honest with ourselves, a number of the things that we call resolutions are just mere wishes because we are not fully persuaded about achieving them. The truth is that there is a difference between a wish and a desire, and what a lot of us are expressing as resolutions are just wishes. A desire will engulf your being and take up all the space in your mind. You would be convinced and persuaded about it. In fact, the proof of desire is pursuit; so if you aren’t chasing it throughout the year, it is just a mere wish. So tell yourself the truth, if you really want change in the year 2014, you have to have desires. So you must commit yourself to certain things that are must haves in the year 2014. So, that’s the first thing – DESIRE!
The second thing is DECIDE. When I say decide, I mean you need to make a decision on certain things that you need to start doing and some things that you need to stop doing. So, relative to whatever desires that you have for the year 2014, what are the hindrances to your cause? You need to stop them. What are the things that are advancement to your cause? You need to start them and commit yourself to doing these things. The truth is a lot of people have relegated themselves to the background; they have left the mantle for change in the hands of other people, so when some things go wrong they blame other people. They blame the economy; so there are certain people who say that if the economy was better, my life would be better. So the people who are going to change in this new year are those who would make the declaration that “If it has to be in 2014, then it is up to me”. So don’t leave the power of change in the hands of anybody. So make sure you DECIDE to start doing certain things and stop doing certain things.
The third thing that would form the premise of this piece is diligence. Let me simplify the import of this, because a number of us do not really understand the power of diligence. The power of diligence is hidden in one word –
routine. The power of diligence is hidden in routine. As we advance in time, there are so many distractions such as the media. What is really a distraction? A distraction is an attraction that sidetracks you from your goal. It’s an attraction and it looks good, but it’s going to take you away from that which is important to you. So the power of overcoming distraction is hidden in routine. So if you are going to break the bounds of those things that hinder you in life, you have to have the power of routine. So the power of the routine is not just in the activities of the things that you carry out; they are in the process. It’s the process that brings about change. I can explain this using a few analogies: the first is that of eating. You eat and it brings about the development of your body. Take for instance you go visit your two-year old niece and she’s of a particular height. And over time, maybe some years later, you discover that she has grown significantly taller, and it is the process of eating that leads to that growth. It’s not just eating itself; but the process of eating. We cannot say the food that has led to her growth, but we know it is the process of eating. They say ‘practice makes perfect’, but we don’t know which particular practice yields perfection, but we know it is the process of practicing that brings about the change. The second analogy is exercising. There are two guys who are in the gym; the first says he wants to develop muscles and wants to be fit. The first day he does 100 push-ups, the next day he does nothing. Two weeks later he repeats the same thing. He merely excites the muscles; he doesn’t extend his muscles. This leads to futility because he has no routine for development. And the second guy decides to do 10 press-ups every day and increases this to 20 press-ups the following week. The second guy would get results, while the first guy wouldn’t get the same.
These scenarios are no different from making resolutions without following through to keep them. The truth is if you want to experience change you must have a routine that you are committed to: a list of things that you must do regardless of what obstacles you face. Because the truth is if you compromise once, you will compromise the second and third time. So do not give yourself a reason, do not set a precedence for yourself.
So remember the three things you need to start doing something about as: DESIRE, DECIDE, and DILIGENCE. The year 2014 belongs to those who have a routine; remember that.
Bankole Williams is a UK Certified Life Coach and an Employee Engagement Expert . He is the author of “
Engaged to a job I hate”; a book on career advancement and employee engagement. He is an emergent force to be reckoned with in the field of Management Consulting with over 7 years experience in Human Resources and consulting fields. Bankole serves as a Senior Partner and Management Consultant in
EdgeEcution Consulting.
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This article was first published on 7th January 2014
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The third thing that would form the premise of this piece is diligence. Let me simplify the import of this, because a number of us do not really understand the power of diligence. The power of diligence is hidden in one word – routine. The power of diligence is hidden in routine. As we advance in time, there are so many distractions such as the media. What is really a distraction? A distraction is an attraction that sidetracks you from your goal. It’s an attraction and it looks good, but it’s going to take you away from that which is important to you. So the power of overcoming distraction is hidden in routine. So if you are going to break the bounds of those things that hinder you in life, you have to have the power of routine. So the power of the routine is not just in the activities of the things that you carry out; they are in the process. It’s the process that brings about change. I can explain this using a few analogies: the first is that of eating. You eat and it brings about the development of your body. Take for instance you go visit your two-year old niece and she’s of a particular height. And over time, maybe some years later, you discover that she has grown significantly taller, and it is the process of eating that leads to that growth. It’s not just eating itself; but the process of eating. We cannot say the food that has led to her growth, but we know it is the process of eating. They say ‘practice makes perfect’, but we don’t know which particular practice yields perfection, but we know it is the process of practicing that brings about the change. The second analogy is exercising. There are two guys who are in the gym; the first says he wants to develop muscles and wants to be fit. The first day he does 100 push-ups, the next day he does nothing. Two weeks later he repeats the same thing. He merely excites the muscles; he doesn’t extend his muscles. This leads to futility because he has no routine for development. And the second guy decides to do 10 press-ups every day and increases this to 20 press-ups the following week. The second guy would get results, while the first guy wouldn’t get the same.
These scenarios are no different from making resolutions without following through to keep them. The truth is if you want to experience change you must have a routine that you are committed to: a list of things that you must do regardless of what obstacles you face. Because the truth is if you compromise once, you will compromise the second and third time. So do not give yourself a reason, do not set a precedence for yourself.
So remember the three things you need to start doing something about as: DESIRE, DECIDE, and DILIGENCE. The year 2014 belongs to those who have a routine; remember that.
Bankole Williams is a UK Certified Life Coach and an Employee Engagement Expert . He is the author of “Engaged to a job I hate”; a book on career advancement and employee engagement. He is an emergent force to be reckoned with in the field of Management Consulting with over 7 years experience in Human Resources and consulting fields. Bankole serves as a Senior Partner and Management Consultant in EdgeEcution Consulting.
