Happy New Year to everyone! With this, my first real update of the New Year, I thought it was important to address the topic of resolutions. I am all for taking the opportunity to look back at the past year and seeing how I can improve my habits and attitudes and be a better person in the year to come. But what I notice is that many people (myself included) are overly ambitious with their goals and then within a couple of weeks or a month, we start feeling overwhelmed and we give up on our efforts.
I started thinking about the way that pilots (or autopilots) navigate their airplanes to remote destinations. It is not a straight line from point A to point B. There are hundreds of little corrections along the way. The plane's navigation system determines the flight path and then constantly recalibrates the plane's controls based on the current location, altitude, etc. Autopilots also improve fuel efficiency and passenger comfort, since the adjustments made by an autopilot are more subtle and accurate than those made by hand. It's similar to what happens to your GPS route when you accidentally take a wrong turn. Rather than berating you (wrong turn, idiot!) it simply reevaluates the course based on your current location.
So, my suggestion is this: rather than taking on unrealistic resolutions and then beating up on ourselves when we cannot live up to them, what about making some smaller, more reachable goals along the way? Instead of "New Year's" resolutions, what about "New Month" resolutions? At the beginning of each month, we have the opportunity to check in with ourselves, take stock of our current locations, or progress, and then make the necessary adjustments... without all of the guilt and drama.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic. If you have something to add to the discussion please do so ..
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