How do we keep up? What point is a resolution unkept. After short-term satisfaction, our failures bruise egos and reset us to emotional neutrality.
How do we keep up? What point is a resolution unkept. After short-term satisfaction, our failures bruise egos and reset us to emotional neutrality.
How do we keep up? What point is a resolution unkept. After short-term satisfaction, our failures bruise egos and reset us to emotional neutrality.
Industry:
Lifestyle
Jan 1, 2016
Jan 1, 2016
Jan 1, 2016
Management
Analysis
The things you were going to do
Some believe resolutions, and some don’t. Some dread the waves of new year gym goers, others gleefully count their share of the self-improvement industry. But people dream, and recognize improvement as admirable. Whether reincarnated or not, there’s one you. Self-defeat fosters negativity, and distracts from reasons to improve. It’s all in about perspective, but beyond worldview lies tangible paths towards your best self.
Accepting our limited time sustains industries built on telling us how to use it efficiently. What meaning comes from wasted time and how do we keep it from piling up into a ball of regret? There are better ways to coexist along time’s side, and turn anxiety, into time’s advocacy and encouragement for better habits.
Magic of one
Improving in one way is easier than improving in five ways. Focusing on one change, since changes don’t happen in a vacuum. With one, you can be partially serious about working the change into your life. Recognize the weight of your commitment and treat it with respect as it will entail sacrifice on your part. You can’t fit 30 hours of improvements into a 24 hour day. A resolution is a double edge sword. When you spend 1 hour working out, you lose 1 hour of TV time. That 1 hour you want to spend writing will mean 1 less hour of social media. Time doesn’t accommodate itself to your wishes. You fit your wishes into time. One is a number that fits better than the rest.
Remember the other numbers
Numbers are great because we can count them. Counting is easy, and it’s obvious when we can't count to the number you were supposed to.
Don’t be rich; earn $100k in income or assets
Don’t eat better; limit your caloric intake to 2500
Don’t travel; visit 5 cities more than 5000 miles away
You want to know if you're keeping up, but its hard to compare with the abstract. Counting feels real. Numbers can separate childish wishes from grown-up goals.
The time-wasting barometer
What could be said to convince you that you’re wasting time? Would you need a chart or comparisons to historical figures of the past? Would someone need to watch over you, shaking their heads with a stop-watch in one hand, and an hour-glass in the other?
Collective perception matters little against circumstances. The wealthy and happy need not be subject to the same finger wagging. Time is more than money. Constant and always moving forward for little care for possessions. Beyond time, concern is best spent on your optimism, relationships, and goals fulfilling its meaning. How do we determine the value extracted from the time gifted to us? It’s all relative whether it’s wasted or not.
Account for blindspots
We resolve because we want better for ourselves, but ‘best’ is biased from alternative perspectives. Why trust our resolve to promised we half bake for ourselves. Finding accountability frames how and what we resolve to do. Answer to more than our internal biases, because if we were great enough to believe in ourself, we wouldn’t be in situations where we satisfy needs for improvement through silly resolutions.
We can be easy on ourselves, to both our benefit and detriment. But the bias remains. A resolution guarded by one has little value.
Respect how others treat their commitments
Time serves others, and all will reflect on what they ordered with it. Beyond the irony of this message, move beyond saving the world and time. Time itself will be the arbiter of all regrets, separating the right from the wrong. Advice on maximized time is spent on those who depend on you, seek you out, or obstruct how you choose to foster your time. Beyond that, those caught in moment have little concerns for ranting about how the end is near.
No pride in misery
Embrace small wins. Few can handle large shocks to the system. For those wanting to go to the gym, you don’t need to subject yourself to intensive, stressful gym sessions accompanied by the screams of a personal trainer. Do a simple 45 minute speed walk to music you enjoy. Then jog for part of it after conforming to the new baseline. Misery does not suggest improvement. The goal is to be better than you were. Massive changes to current behavior increases the chance of failure. Any serious resolution acknowledges the need to rest for it’s proper application. Without building the steps to the platform, you will not have much to stand on.
Worry about waste or failure yields nothing
Worrying for time is an affirms its misuse. What’s lost is lost. Replace worry with preparation. Track your time, sense failure and success, and plan how to use future time efficiently. There are moments when we want to selfishly feed our current interest and bathe in the pleasure of short-term satisfaction. It happens, but diminishing returns can follow momentary bliss. Use the tools available to make you feel better about how you spend time. Monitor your energy levels, and see how it syncs up with time because energy is the biggest harbinger of its productive use.
Avoid repeating the failed experiments of the past
People succeed and fail. Whether through effort or luck, it helps to keep track. Match the ends to your means and adjust where time gets dedicated. Cast aside comfort, process, tools, and systems that capture ego over progress. Embrace the malaise. Follow others who experienced the same pain walking over broken glass. But understand to craft your journey for you. People bounce from experiment to experiment, figuring things out, for the future collective. Don’t think to be too good for that, or to seek resources and people along the path.
Creating a path
Resolution should be for life. Requiring more that a day of planning and a planetary revolution reset for it to be sustained. We live our lives and decide on the desire to improve it. Whether born from desperation, dissatisfaction, or boredom, frame the plans around those desires. Schedule it on the calendar, plan how progress is reviewed. Plan the punishments, rewards, and contingencies. Plan the reactions to success or failures. Planning embeds those desires with validity.
Accept being a waste of time. Worry little for your impact to the world. Be free knowing your intention and inventions you are destined to be forgotten within generations. Others may build on your contributions but take solace that your time is yours. And as we wade forward through it we end up with less at every step. Or don’t, the world will revolve and resolve either way.
The things you were going to do
Some believe resolutions, and some don’t. Some dread the waves of new year gym goers, others gleefully count their share of the self-improvement industry. But people dream, and recognize improvement as admirable. Whether reincarnated or not, there’s one you. Self-defeat fosters negativity, and distracts from reasons to improve. It’s all in about perspective, but beyond worldview lies tangible paths towards your best self.
Accepting our limited time sustains industries built on telling us how to use it efficiently. What meaning comes from wasted time and how do we keep it from piling up into a ball of regret? There are better ways to coexist along time’s side, and turn anxiety, into time’s advocacy and encouragement for better habits.
Magic of one
Improving in one way is easier than improving in five ways. Focusing on one change, since changes don’t happen in a vacuum. With one, you can be partially serious about working the change into your life. Recognize the weight of your commitment and treat it with respect as it will entail sacrifice on your part. You can’t fit 30 hours of improvements into a 24 hour day. A resolution is a double edge sword. When you spend 1 hour working out, you lose 1 hour of TV time. That 1 hour you want to spend writing will mean 1 less hour of social media. Time doesn’t accommodate itself to your wishes. You fit your wishes into time. One is a number that fits better than the rest.
Remember the other numbers
Numbers are great because we can count them. Counting is easy, and it’s obvious when we can't count to the number you were supposed to.
Don’t be rich; earn $100k in income or assets
Don’t eat better; limit your caloric intake to 2500
Don’t travel; visit 5 cities more than 5000 miles away
You want to know if you're keeping up, but its hard to compare with the abstract. Counting feels real. Numbers can separate childish wishes from grown-up goals.
The time-wasting barometer
What could be said to convince you that you’re wasting time? Would you need a chart or comparisons to historical figures of the past? Would someone need to watch over you, shaking their heads with a stop-watch in one hand, and an hour-glass in the other?
Collective perception matters little against circumstances. The wealthy and happy need not be subject to the same finger wagging. Time is more than money. Constant and always moving forward for little care for possessions. Beyond time, concern is best spent on your optimism, relationships, and goals fulfilling its meaning. How do we determine the value extracted from the time gifted to us? It’s all relative whether it’s wasted or not.
Account for blindspots
We resolve because we want better for ourselves, but ‘best’ is biased from alternative perspectives. Why trust our resolve to promised we half bake for ourselves. Finding accountability frames how and what we resolve to do. Answer to more than our internal biases, because if we were great enough to believe in ourself, we wouldn’t be in situations where we satisfy needs for improvement through silly resolutions.
We can be easy on ourselves, to both our benefit and detriment. But the bias remains. A resolution guarded by one has little value.
Respect how others treat their commitments
Time serves others, and all will reflect on what they ordered with it. Beyond the irony of this message, move beyond saving the world and time. Time itself will be the arbiter of all regrets, separating the right from the wrong. Advice on maximized time is spent on those who depend on you, seek you out, or obstruct how you choose to foster your time. Beyond that, those caught in moment have little concerns for ranting about how the end is near.
No pride in misery
Embrace small wins. Few can handle large shocks to the system. For those wanting to go to the gym, you don’t need to subject yourself to intensive, stressful gym sessions accompanied by the screams of a personal trainer. Do a simple 45 minute speed walk to music you enjoy. Then jog for part of it after conforming to the new baseline. Misery does not suggest improvement. The goal is to be better than you were. Massive changes to current behavior increases the chance of failure. Any serious resolution acknowledges the need to rest for it’s proper application. Without building the steps to the platform, you will not have much to stand on.
Worry about waste or failure yields nothing
Worrying for time is an affirms its misuse. What’s lost is lost. Replace worry with preparation. Track your time, sense failure and success, and plan how to use future time efficiently. There are moments when we want to selfishly feed our current interest and bathe in the pleasure of short-term satisfaction. It happens, but diminishing returns can follow momentary bliss. Use the tools available to make you feel better about how you spend time. Monitor your energy levels, and see how it syncs up with time because energy is the biggest harbinger of its productive use.
Avoid repeating the failed experiments of the past
People succeed and fail. Whether through effort or luck, it helps to keep track. Match the ends to your means and adjust where time gets dedicated. Cast aside comfort, process, tools, and systems that capture ego over progress. Embrace the malaise. Follow others who experienced the same pain walking over broken glass. But understand to craft your journey for you. People bounce from experiment to experiment, figuring things out, for the future collective. Don’t think to be too good for that, or to seek resources and people along the path.
Creating a path
Resolution should be for life. Requiring more that a day of planning and a planetary revolution reset for it to be sustained. We live our lives and decide on the desire to improve it. Whether born from desperation, dissatisfaction, or boredom, frame the plans around those desires. Schedule it on the calendar, plan how progress is reviewed. Plan the punishments, rewards, and contingencies. Plan the reactions to success or failures. Planning embeds those desires with validity.
Accept being a waste of time. Worry little for your impact to the world. Be free knowing your intention and inventions you are destined to be forgotten within generations. Others may build on your contributions but take solace that your time is yours. And as we wade forward through it we end up with less at every step. Or don’t, the world will revolve and resolve either way.