5 Things to Add to Your New Year's List


5 Things to Add to Your New Year's Resolution
In case you don't know yet,  a New Year's resolution is a tradition in which a person makes a promise to improve or do something positive, such as to save money or to start exercising, beginning from Day One.
 
Historically, the Romans began each year by making promises to the god Janus, for whom the month of January was named after.



And as the title suggests, here are five things that you might want to add in your already long list of to-do and try-not-to-do for the upcoming year:

1. Stop buying things and calling them investments
It may be true that anything you buy can actually be considered an investment. But again, it is only an investment if you'll use it to generate additional income or if it puts money inside your pocket. 
 
Is attending a paid seminar an investment? Yes, but only if you apply what you've learned there. Is a bag with a price tag of P3,000 an investment? Maybe yes, if you'll use it to deliver packed lunch in your office.

Stop buying things and calling them investments
 
The truth is, people blindly buy things and label their purchases as investments simply to cover-up or justify their unhealthy spending habits.
 
You bought a new smartphone and told yourself, “It's expensive, but this is a good investment.” only to use it for sending stupid SMS chains. Seriously, do you even know what the word “investment” really means?

New Years' Resolution: Stop fooling yourself!

2. Treasure the moment, not the photo
According to a research conducted by National Photo Enthusiasts Committee (NPEC) last November, about 38% of data is consumed by selfie-related images. That means if today's generation don't do something to stop this abusive habit, only 10% will be left available for storage by the year 2025!

The above statement is a made-up joke, of course. But if you find it hard not take a selfie regardless of the situation, or you have this feeling that you can't live without a selfie, then you might want to consider seeing a psychologist.

Treasure the moment, not the photo

On a serious note, do you really have to capture (and post) all those pictures of yours? Sometimes, in our drive to capture every moment, we fail to cherish the moment we are capturing. Take for example when people attend concerts and they're busy recording everything on cam and lost half of their “live concert experience” in doing so.  

New Years' Resolution: Get and live a real life. There's more to life outside the social media.
 
3. Commit to a process, not a goal
Some people love setting goals. Unfortunately, their goals don't always love them back. James Clear, an entrepreneur, wrote an excellent article about forgetting goals and focusing on systems instead.

“We all have things that we want to achieve in our lives -- building a successful business, getting into better shape, raising a wonderful family. For most of us, the path to achieving those things starts with setting a specific and actionable goal. When it comes to actually getting things done and making progress in the areas that are important to you, there is a much better way to do things and it all comes down to the difference between goals and systems.

What's the difference between goals and systems?
If you're an entrepreneur, your goal is to build a successful business. Your system is your processes for sales, marketing, fulfillment, operations, etc.

If you're a coach, your goal is to win a championship. Your system is what your team does at practice each day.

If you completely ignored your goals and focused only on your systems, would you still get results?

For example, if you were a basketball coach and you ignored your goal to win a championship and focused only on what your team does at practice each day, would you still get results? I think you would.”

I did some research to back up James' claims, and this is what Wikipedia has to say:
a 2007 study by Richard Wiseman from the University of Bristol involving 3,000 people showed that 88% of those who set New Year resolutions fail, despite the fact that 52% of the study's participants were confident of success at the beginning. Men achieved their goal 22% more often when they engaged in goal setting, (a system where small measurable goals are being set; such as, a pound a week, instead of saying “lose weight”), while women succeeded 10% more when they made their goals public and got support from their friends.

Goals reduce your current happiness.   
When you're working toward a goal, you're essentially saying, “I'm not good enough yet... but I will be when I reach my goal.” The problem with this mindset is that you're teaching yourself to always put off happiness and success until the next milestone is achieved.

Choosing a goal puts a huge burden on your shoulders.  
When you focus on the practice instead of the performance, you can enjoy the present moment and improve at the same time. You might think your goal will keep you motivated over the long term, but that's not always true. When all of your hard work is focused on a particular goal, what is left to push you forward after you achieve it? Goals are about the short-term result. Systems are about the long-term process. In the end, process always wins.

Goals suggest that you can control things that you have no control over. 
You can't predict the future. But every time we set a goal, we try to do it. We try to plan out where we will be and when we will make it there. We try to predict how quickly we can make progress, even though we have no idea what circumstances or situations will arise along the way. Forget about predicting the future and build a system that can signal when you need to make adjustments.

Commit to a process, not a goal

None of this is to say that goals are useless. However, I've found that goals are good for planning your progress, while systems are good for actually making progress. Goals can provide direction and even push you forward in the short term, but eventually a well-designed system will always win. Having a system is what matters, because committing to the process is what makes the difference.

New Years' Resolution: Start today!

4. Live your life but be mindful of the future
I would have wanted to write my own thoughts here, but this part of an article from Fitz Villafuerte's Ready to Be Rich blog says it best! And since I couldn't agree more with him on this, it would be disservice to you if I won't share it:
It’s okay to enjoy your life today, as long as you don’t lose your vision of how you want your future to be. Financially speaking, while it’s true that delaying gratification is a big part of becoming rich, it doesn’t mean that you have to sacrifice your present-day happiness.

But it does require you to realize that happiness ultimately comes from experiencing life, and not from simply being able to afford things and buying stuff.

The fancy meal on your plate is not your source of happiness, it is the dining experience you shared with your spouse that made it worth the money.

Live your life but be mindful of the future

The expensive smartphone is not your source of happiness, it is the connections you forge and the memories you create that give it value.

The designer bag is not your source of happiness, it is being able to express your sense of fashion that actually lifts your mood and self-esteem.

If your future depends on the choices you make today, then it follows that your present is a consequence of what you’ve done in the past.

New Years' Resolution: Plan, You Only Live Once!

5. Grow-up
Stop spending money you haven't earned to buy things you don't need to impress people you don't like, so you won't work on a job you hate. So don't let other people decide the kind of life you want to have.

Grow-up

New Years' Resolution: Grow Up!

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4 comments:

  1. I'm a little late to read this, but its better late than never! thanks for the wonderful, naughty list,

    ReplyDelete
  2. Everyone should read this to have a great start for 2016!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Lorie Anne CasupananJanuary 13, 2016

    awesome list!! im lovin this blog. :D

    ReplyDelete
  4. Many people go out on exploring different ideas and places

    ReplyDelete

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