Saturday, February 04, 2006

2112 New Year's Resolutions Redux

After the hustle and bustle of Thursday Thirteen I try to go back and look at some of the writers, check out their bio and their earlier entries. Joe mentioned his New Year's resolutions since he just started blogging in December 2005. He's a 41 year old divorced father with musical ability who has returned to college to become a teacher. He wrote:

Joe: "My resolution is to be a better christian, a better person, and a better father than I was the day before."

I rarely make resolutions or set goals since I am a problem solver by nature. We problem solvers get physically ill when some chipper, pie-in-the-sky supervisor says, "Let's set some goals for this project," because we believe she already knows exactly where she wants to end up and the task force, committee, or volunteers are there for window dressing. So I left this comment at Joe's blog.

Norma: "In our annual report at Ohio State University Libraries we always had to include goals for the next year and cite how we did on last year's goals.

My boss told me something I've never forgotten (I'm not a goal setter by nature, but this was required.) Always make them measurable and achieveable, so you'll look good next year.

"I will play a board game once a week and attend a sporting event twice a month with my son to be a better father (I'm assuming these are activities he would like)," might give you something to work with. "Better" is a bit nebulous and subjective.

At Judgement, there are no "better Christians." There are only sheep and goats. No "better sheep" or "not so great goats." It's a very clear division. You might say, "I will increase my quiet time by 5 minutes daily," or something like that to grow in the faith. It's measurable, and if you tell a friend, or your son, it's accountable.

And to be a better person? Well, here you have some great choices. "Every Tuesday on the way to work I will let one very surprised driver into traffic ahead of me." Measurable--when you get to Dec. 2006. You could have 40 or even 50 successes to feel good about.

Joe never asked me for my opinion on his New Year's Resolutions, but hey, if you leave your comments open, I just might say something.




1 comment:

Anonymous said...

You MIGHT comment?

When have you held back?

PS
Norma- I always enjoy your blog.