Monday, January 2, 2012

Self Improvement - A Continuous Drive

What does eating black-eyed peas, wearing red, kissing at midnight, checking the direction of the wind and making a lot of noise have in common? These are all the traditional ways people around the world bring in the New Year. With the New Year officially starting only days ago it is a time filled with people thinking about a fresh start focused on personal growth to insure they have a better year then the one they are leaving.

However for me that started days earlier. At this point the majority of you reading are lost. How can I make a fresh start during the final weeks of 2011? However why must we wait for time to tick by for us to grow and make improvements? New Years day is like any other day of the year, the sunrises and then sets and time marches on. Now I am not saying resolutions aren’t a good thing. Researchers say people who explicitly make resolutions are 10 times more likely to attain their goals than people who don't explicitly make resolutions. The question is why can’t we make resolutions year round? The need to embark on a journey of self-improvement shouldn’t have to be marked on a calendar. Webster describes the word RESOLUTION as a firm decision to do or not to do something. That definition didn’t come with a time stamp. To me a resolution is nothing more than a goal. The word goal doesn’t seem nearly as complex and complicated as the word resolution.

GOAL SETTING is nothing new to a lot of people. The basics to forming a solid goal follow the S.M.A.R.T. method. Meaning the goal must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-Bound. But where do we start and how do we set out on sticking to and achieving a resolution or a goal?

One day on my winter break I was surfing Facebook when I happened upon a link that took me to an awesome blog that helped me to answer that question. The blog entry was talking about dealing with change and the author made the solution simple: simply stick to our purpose. They entry stated this:

Purpose is what makes your life worth living. It is what drives our decisions, direction and attitude. If we seek purpose in our actions here on earth, then change becomes our alley, our "side-kick" that helps us do good.”

The same can be applied when trying to develop our goals or resolutions. If we center our goals around our purpose we will surely succeed. So the next question, how do we develop our purpose? Unfortunately I don’t have a direct answer to that question. I can only provide some tips. Each person on this earth is different and unique. Therefore no two people on this earth will have the same purpose. Each will vary. There are a couple things that are certain for sure: ONLY YOU and YOU ALONE can find and discover YOUR PURPOSE.

Look at your life, what you have achieved or what you didn’t then look towards your future, what do you what to achieve?

Another thing that is certain for sure is that New Years day will continue to happen as long as we live. Things will continue to change in our lives. Time marches on. Lets use that valuable time towards our advantage and seek out SELF-IMPROVEMENT YEAR ROUND!