I used to be a person who takes out her book a week before New Year’s to re-write my goals, plan ahead of time, relook at possibilities to make my new year’s resolution work. But the older I get, the more I understand that resolutions do not work because they are just wishes and dreams with no target date. Do you feel me? It’s like trying to win the lottery without purchasing any ticket.
Debatably, even if resolutions were well defined not as desires, but as achievable goals, they do not anything to do with the calendar year. We should set our goals when we need to achieve our desires no matter the season. Moreover, the time taken for us to reach them can vary, sometimes it takes one month or 3 years, depending on how big or small the goal is, the time you spend on it shows how effective you are.
RESOLUTIONS
However, this year I do have a resolution if you will. I want to improve myself and grow to become a skillful individual and make use of the skills for the things I face every day, it can be as simple as performing tasks effectively or maintaining a healthy interpersonal relationship with my attention. Actually, it is something I am considering seriously. I read the book Chicken Soup for the Soul: The Positive Thinking by Jack Canfield (I started em’ since I was 15 years old), I think I am pretty good at staying focused on what I am doing, and the first pages of this book have made me aware of how important it is to develop this skill to the maximum extent possible these days.
Technology is bringing us some good stuff, but it is also making us more and more unable to pay attention to anything for a while. We feel such necessity to check our email and the posts of our acquaintances in social networks every few minutes, that we are no longer able to enjoy a book, a movie, a concert or dinner. We all see people that meet to have a beer and do not talk to each other, although they talk with others who are not present, through mobile. Today teenagers are so used to communicate via devices that they become terribly clumsy identifying emotions through non-verbal gestures.
All that worries me a lot, so 1. I am not going to be that way, and 2. I will encourage everyone not to be that way. How will I treat this solution? Since attention is developed as you use it, I will ensure I’m using it every day. I will establish the routine to check every day if I am paying full attention to what I am doing. I will define a daily checklist to make sure that:
- I am not interrupting a real conversation with a person who is present, to answer a message I just received.
- I’m keeping a ‘reality check’ timer to live in the present moment every day at 13:25 PM.
- And if the other person does it, I will make it clear what message he/she is conveying me: “I’m not interested in what’s happening here and now”.
- I am using regularly in my work since it is very effective against distractions.
- I am following these.
Surely, I will add more points as I progress, I will tell you…
Happy New Year’s 2020 readers! Cheers.
