A Handy Dandy New Year’s Resolution Form

It’s that time o’ year, time to make your traditional New Year’s resolutions! I thought I would offer assistance to those who are resolution challenged with a New Year’s resolution form. This form could be just what you need if you answer yes to any of the following questions.

• Are you having difficulty deciding on what resolution to take? • Do you want something achievable? • Do you need a challenge? • Are you just so darn happy with yourself it’s hard to find something?

Maybe this will help. All you have to do is choose the appropriate response.

New Year’s Resolution Form

This year, I will________________

• Track

• Follow

• Disregard

• Not care

• Give up

• Quit

My efforts to__________________

• Improve

• Increase

• Decrease

• Ignore

• Forget

• Deny

My_________________________

• Diet

• Exercise

• Income

• Bad attitude

• Gambling

• Personnel hygiene

I will do this with (by) __________________________________

• Setting a goal

• Making a plan

• Following activities

• Depending on others to do it for me

• Prayer

And by____________________________________________

• Asking for help

• Sharing my resolution

• Changing my goal as needed

• Not looking at it too much

• Keeping it to myself

• Shouting “It’s none of your business!” to strangers

I will reward myself with (by) ____________________________________

• A shopping spree

• A vacation

• More “me” time

• Bon-bons and chocolate shakes

• Watching a “Family Matters” marathon

• Not making a resolution next year

All you need to do is copy your selections from above into the blanks below:

This year I will __________________ my efforts to ____________ my____________ I will do this by _________________________ and_____________________________ I will reward myself with _________________________________________________

It’s as easy as that. If you’d like to go public with your resolution, pick your favorite six responses, (or dare I suggest make up your own?) and post them in comments.

Here’s mine: This year, I will give up my efforts to improve my bad attitude. I will do this with prayer and by shouting, “It’s none of your business!” to strangers. I will reward myself by watching a Family Matters marathon.

Okay, Seriously Folks

Most of us have made New Year’s resolutions only to abandon them after the mood was gone. If you’re like me, it wasn't because you didn't want to achieve the goal, you probably didn't plan to quit. So…why didn't you keep your resolution? The answer might be in one of these seven mistakes.

1. Don’t make too many resolutions at one time. Resolving to lose weight, learn a language, go back to school, run every day, and cut down on the ole Coors Lite may not be realistic. Pick one and focus on it.

2. Don’t make general resolutions, for example, “I’m going to lose weight!” Spell out how much weight, your plan of attack, and set a deadline. This might help, Six Ingredients of a Goal.

3. Don’t wait until midnight New Year’s Eve to make your resolution—put a little thought into it (and less of the traditional New Year’s Eve adult beverages) before making a resolution.

4. Don’t bite off more than you can chew—break large resolves into smaller achievable bites. For example, if you haven’t been running and resolve to run a half marathon you’re not going to do it next week. If you wanted to write 100 blog posts in 2018 you wouldn't try to write them all in January, would you?

5. Don’t keep your resolution to yourself—go public with your goals. If you’re serious about your goal, and by that, I mean you've thought it out and have a plan of action, then going public may be the added pressure you need to succeed.

6. Don’t focus on the goal—focus on activities. You cannot do a goal you can do activities.

7. Don’t over-complicate it. Keep it simple. Here’s an example.

My New Year’s resolution is to ___________________ my deadline is ___________________ the activities I will change, improve, begin, or stop to hit this goal are: ___________________

There you have it, although the mid-20th century swashbuckling film star Errol Flynn may have the best answer when he resolved to, “Quit making resolutions!”

Have a safe and Happy New Year. See you in 2018!

Randy Clark is the Director of Communications at TKO Graphix, where he blogs for TKO Graphix Brandwire. Randy is passionate about social media, leadership development, and flower gardening. He’s the proud father of two educators; he has four amazing grandchildren, and a wife who dedicates her time to helping others. Randy is the author of How to Stay Ahead of Your Business Blog Forever and The New Manager’s Workbook: A Crash Course in Effective Management.

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