Resolution #1: No More New Year's Resolutions

This is the time of year when many people engage in what I find to be an odd custom. They take things that have lingered on their to-do lists – things they have put off doing for a long time – and they put them on a brand new list. They call this new list their New Year's resolutions. (And it always includes “working out more.”)

The problem with lists in general, I've always felt, is that they become places to “park” the things we know we need to do – until life takes over and we eventually forget about them. New Year's resolution lists are seldom much different. Be honest now: how many lasting changes in the course of your life have come about because of a new year's resolution?

Sure, the spirit of renewal that comes with the turning of a fresh calendar might create enough urgency to give you some traction on some of those list items – for a while. But more often, these lists can actually have a de-motivating affect, because we look at it and see the same usual suspects, the same nagging reminders of the same things we still haven't accomplished. It's hard to get excited about that.

The other big problem with trying to “list” your way to personal growth is that it lacks context. You are attacking the what without fully coming to terms with the why. It's easy to say I'm going to exercise more, but the question is why are you making this a resolution? After all, that's going to be a difficult promise to keep if it's not part of a greater commitment toward personal health – one that you have spent time defining. Which is why resolution lists tend to strike me as backwards – an agenda of action items in search of a purpose. Starting from a vision first makes a lot more sense.

That's why I say, forget resolutions – try renewing your vows.

Renew the vows you've made to your family, to yourself and your health, to your practice, to all the people and the principles and values that matter to you in a profound way. And do it openly. Sit down with your family, outline your ambitions for the year and listen to theirs. Take your team out for an annual kick-off meeting where you lay out your plans for the practice and explain how each of them fits in. That's an approach that creates its own ongoing set of meaningful resolutions and actions. Good vows are re-newed every year and enhance your focus week-to-week.

Anyone can make – and break – a New Year's resolution. People do it all the time. But it takes vision and character to make a vow, to create an inspiring vision, to make yourself openly accountable to yourself and others, and to let your actions be guided by that pledge and those values.

So let's scrap the glorified to-do list, and make 2012 a year to remember by starting with an inspiring vision that will motivate and guide us for the next 12 months, and beyond.