Top skills that convert new year resolutions into achievable goals

Greetings from Team NSN for a joyful and skillful new year! 

New year brings in new hope, new energy, new enthusiasm and new resolutions. These resolutions are normally based on reflecting and reviewing ourselves – on the professional and personal fronts – and all that we desire for ourselves. In other words, the gap between ‘what or where we are’ and ‘what or where we want to be’, is often formulated into a resolution.

However, how often do you revisit your resolutions – whether it’s about your fitness, or relationships or job and career-related? Normally, we tend to forget these resolutions as we get caught in our daily routine. So, instead of just resolving to do something or stop doing something, why don’t we convert them into a goals? Goals are outcomes that can be achieved, measured and managed!

Let’s look at the top skills and abilities that are absolutely necessary to get started:

Listening, observing and reflecting skills

A resolution is a promise you make to yourself! Before making a resolution, make sure you have looked back at yourself and all that has been happening around you. It is important to put things in perspective by listening well, seeking people’s inputs, getting their feedback. Even for personal resolution, you need to place yourself in the larger perspective and validate if you are clear about what you wish to do or what you want to avoid doing. This helps in deciding what is most important for the year and why it should be pursued.

Planning, organizing and executing skills

Proper planning helps in converting your resolution into a goal! There’s no point in coming up with a resolution without being clear about ways and means to act upon it. So, start working on a plan, break it into small objectives and a schedule with a “to-do” list. Being time-bound helps you feel good when you see that your objectives are achieved. Also, make sure that you involve the right people and get support from them to realize your goals. Review and repeat your success and keeping going!

A GOAL is linked to a result, it needs action and effort and the achievement can be measured. Whereas, a RESOLUTION is just a decision and we may lose focus to act upon these decisions and miss out on some really valuable achievements. Whether it’s about losing few kilos of weight by joining a gym or about fulfilling professional promises, you need some key skills to turn a resolution into a goal. Inability to implement a resolution leaves you frustrated whereas accomplishing a goal gives a sense of fulfilment and reason to move ahead.

Communicating and collaborating skills

Communication helps in being answerable to oneself! Did you ever try communicating your resolutions with your colleagues, friends or family members? Did it help? It actually does. When we share our decisions with others we feel accountable to put them into practice and would try out best to prove that we can do it. It’s a different kind of pressure we build on ourselves and helps in being self-driven, especially because most resolutions are tough and a bit of discipline really helps.

Networking and learning skills

Your resolution could be the same as that of many others! Try to connect with people who have similar or same resolutions. It gives you a chance to be a part of larger community and may open up new ways of executing your plans. It may also build a kind of peer pressure that keeps you focused on the right direction. At the same time, when you meet and talk to people with similar goals, you get to learn a lot and this learning would definitely help in avoiding what doesn’t work or embracing what works.

Positive thinking skills

Positive thinking is the super skill that bonds all the other skills! When you start on a positive note, you begin to see hope and not hurdles. Your mind needs to be constantly reinforced with positive thoughts for achieving the results. So, it’ s necessary to consciously practice this skill and ignore people or situations that discourage you or demean your resolutions. Be focused and believe in yourself; it definitely helps you see the positive side of things and inculcate the ability to learn and acquire the right skills!

Don’t just make and break a resolution; convert it into a goal. The power to change and transform rests within us. It needs our will and commitment to reach where we want to go. And of course loads of self-motivation, determination to keep going by crossing all the hurdles – both imagined and real! Let’s hope in 2017 we make a conscious effort to acquire those skills and transform our resolutions to goals that can be achieved, measured and managed. Here’s wishing everyone a skillful 2017!