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It's July. Have You Met Your 2008 Resolutions Yet?

Half of the year has passed and where are you now from where you were six months ago? What were your New Year’s Resolutions, if any? More and more I hear people say they don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. The main reason they give for not making resolutions is that they don’t believe they will be true to their word in working toward their goal. Well, if that doesn’t say it all! Naturally, if one believes they won’t succeed, then they won’t. It also says a lot to what one is committed to doing, being, and having.

I believe that what gets misconstrued in making a resolution is an unrealistic expectation that success is linear in accomplishing what you are aiming to achieve. That’s a myth and definitely unrealistic! How can you reach new levels of success without failing? If you already knew how to do it, you would be doing it! Making a resolution and being committed to it doesn’t mean you won’t fail. Inherent in moving toward a bigger dream is failure. The question is how committed are you to your resolution of having a better job, working toward a promotion, becoming an entrepreneur, going back to school, taking better care of your health and having more love?

For example, we all know one of the “biggies” for New Year’s Resolutions is getting into a healthy shape and size. I must confess that I am one of those who doesn’t do the weight lose and exercise resolution. Throughout the year I intermittently exercise and make food exchanges to something healthier. I bet there isn’t a day that doesn’t go by when I “sort of” resolve to exercise and eat healthier. The story I tell myself is by such and such a date I will be so many pounds lighter and I will exercise five times a week. I have taken off six pounds, and it has taken me six months to do that. I believe in the process of the journey, but that is really taking the snail’s pace. This week I did exercise five times and it feels good. Will I follow through next week? Maybe! The bottom line of a “sort of” resolution is it has no commitment. It has no legs to stand on.

Now compare that “sort of” resolution with one I did make at the beginning of this year: I made a commitment to “play a bigger game” in growing my coaching business, which I love. One of the staples in winning the game is to have a coach. For the last ten years I rarely have been without a coach. My coaches have seen me through the good and the bad times. I know that when life is throwing a curve, one can either sit in the manure or recognize the fertilizer there to grow something new. I may stew for awhile and that is okay, but then I choose to use the fertilizer to transform my actions and who I am being toward new possibilities. Coaching is the fertilizer to growing exponentially.

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