It’s been a long time since I’ve made New Years Resolutions. You shouldn’t either.
You’ll break them within a couple of weeks. And kicking off a year with broken promises to yourself gives your inner critic ammunition and will feed The Fear.
So this year I’m taking a leaf from Chris Guillebeau who gives each year a theme, and Chris Brogan who picks three words to focus on throughout the year.
These approaches appeal to me as when you’re not sure that what you’re doing is right, you can refer back to these words and themes.
2011 is my year of transformation. While I spent much of last year flying blind; not knowing where I was going or what I was doing, I’m now on a mission.
It involves working, thinking and acting in many ways that are unfamiliar to me and which I find hard. I think “transformation” just about covers it.
My three words for 2011 are:
- Community – building a community of like minded people who I can help, and creating a situation where they (once I’ve worked out how to make the technical side of it work) can help each other. This also extends to the broader community. For instance I gave blood for the first time last year, and will continue to do that and find other ways to give what I can this year.
- Passion – I’ve often “ended up” doing stuff, and “fallen into” projects. Many of these have been successful but I’ve never committed to anything with all of my being or for the long haul (i.e. my lifetime). This is because I’ve not summoned the courage to truly follow my passion. This changes now, even if it involves failure at first (or at second, at third, at fourth etc).
- Practise – my playing, my performance, my writing and becoming a better individual. What’s hard about practise is that it is incremental and you don’t see the fruits of your labour straight away. You’re flying in the face of the 140 character “results today” society we live in. Without immediate tangible results it’s so hard to do it every day. But here’s the simple truth – the only way I’m ever going to pursue my passion is to practise.
What about you? What does your 2011 hold?