Quantcast
Channel: The Next Goal» new year
Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 2

Ironic, Isn’t It? Letting Go of the Clean Slate Mentality

0
0

You might think that a blog devoted to goal-setting and success would be full of articles on 2012 New Year’s Resolutions during the first week of the new year – and yet, here we are, strangely silent. The team has been taking an extended – if well deserved – holiday break! Goals and resolutions can be set at any time.

In fact, there’s nothing sacred about setting them on January 1. It may even be a bad idea.

Research shows that about 80 percent of people who make resolutions on Jan. 1 fall off the wagon by Valentine’s Day, according to Marti Hope Gonzales, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Minnesota.

We get all caught up in the notion of starting with a “clean slate” – I know that, somehow, I feel worse about breaking resolutions made on a fresh new day, new week, or new year than I do about goals set at 2:13 PM on a Tuesday afternoon. You’d think the guilt would motivate, but what tends to happen is, we feel that sensation of failure – the slate is smudged, the day is shot, the year is over before it’s begun. Discouragement sets in early, along with all its negative self-talk. The thing to do, then, is to break free of the clean slate. Instead, imagine the slate full of bad habits and scribbles – imagine yourself cleaning it up, one corner or smudge at a time. Begin your resolutions now – right now – where you stand. Simply decide if it’s something you really want to do – to develop a new and better habit, to be slimmer and fitter, to accomplish a professional goal; are you truly committed? Is it a crazy big goal you’re convinced you could never accomplish? Is it a crazy big goal you MIGHT not manage in a year, but are ready – wholeheartedly ready – to try? Every journey begins with lifting a foot or setting a wheel in motion. Begin where you are, recognizing that you will need, now and then, to pause and refuel – perhaps to detour down the path less traveled. The trick is to keep moving forward. That’s progress.

Pardon Our Dust

Another reason for our “hiatus,” besides the fact that after ten weeks of frenzied blogging and competition, the Frog Bloggers needed to do something – anything – besides blogging, is that part of the prize is a new web hosting home for TheNextGoal.com. We thought we were moving to it last week, and didn’t want anything to get lost in the move. All the boxes were packed and labeled – twice – and the moving trucks arrived. The dust flew as they went to work. And apparently, some of it worked its way into the server’s gears or one of the gerbils was allergic to frogs – but our new web host reportedly had some “technical difficulties” and the move’s been postponed. So do expect a bit of dust and shifting ground as we eventually do get settled in to more permanent digs. We hope, at least, that our new host won’t ever display “account suspended” just because you like us too much.

Speaking of Goals

We’ve been individually thinking about ours – posting them on our personal blogs (well, except for Neeraj, who’s doing his own hush-hush redesign over there at The Freelancer Diary and celebrating another trip around the sun by bodysurfing at Goa and Brandon – these two are busy with plans to attend grad school soon!).

Get Ready To Make 2012 Your Best Year Yet!

Kicking Butt in 2012

Resolute in 2012

and maybe one of the craziest, biggest goals is one that started out as a silly, tongue-in-cheek dare aimed at my “frienemy” from Team1, Mitch Allen – who’d flippantly said something about winning a Hugo Award being the “most important thing in life.” That got me thinking – why not? Even as I smacked him with the velvet gauntlet, the mental wheels were seriously turning, and the Race to the Hugo was on.

So, there are some of our goals – we’d love it if you’d share yours with us! Feel free to leave them – or links to them – in the comments, below. What’s your most important goal for 2012?

Ironic, Isn’t It? Letting Go of the Clean Slate Mentality is a post from: The Next Goal

About Holly Jahangiri

Holly Jahangiri lives in Texas and claims to channel the spirits of Edgar Allan Poe, O. Henry and Erma Bombeck. She has known since fifth grade that she wanted to be a professional writer. Holly is a technical communicator whose imagination is allowed free rein in her short stories, children's books, and poetry. You can visit her personal blog, "It's All a Matter of Perspective," at http://jahangiri.us/new.


Viewing all articles
Browse latest Browse all 2

Latest Images

Trending Articles





Latest Images