A new twist to New Year resolutions

2009 is coming to an end. With the new year approaching, what do you hope to achieve in 2010? Reflecting on the happenings of 2009 gives us a chance to see the lessons that can be learnt, and to make 2010 a better year with added knowledge and wisdom.

Sum up your year in a sentence. What would you say? Maybe there’s just one thing you have learnt from 2009. What would it be? Is there a value to New Year Resolutions?
Many people have ambivalent attitudes towards New Year resolutions, me included.

And yet it is good to set some directions for 2009 and start the New Year on a positive note. Taking actions, fine-tuning plans and maintaining momentum to achieve the goals becomes the real challenge as time will prove. Any heads nodding in agreement?

For many years I wrote down goals and practised setting New Year resolutions. Haven’t found it to work pretty well so far.

Here I give a new twist to setting New Year resolutions. I’ve come up with a different approach to guide me in setting goals that I can definitely achieve by the end of the year, or even earlier.

My three guiding principles for New Year resolutions are:

1.    “Core Essential” goals

This year, I will set goals but keep them to a crucial few. The core essentials I call them. They will keep me more focused. Likelihood of achieving them also increases naturally.

2.    “Impossible not to achieve” goals

What do I mean? Set goals that are straightforward and not too hard to achieve. In other words, unless something goes terribly wrong, it is a definite bingo to realize your goals and put a tick on your goal checklist.

3.    “Feel good” goals

Am I emphasizing a pleasure-driving way of life and advocate that everyone should act according to what makes them feel good? Not really. But seriously speaking, what motivates people? Things that make them feel good. There could be a hundred good reasons why you should eat a low-fat and low-meat diet. But in reality you don’t because to abstain from eating KFC or a bowl of your favourite Katong Laksa simply is “unimaginable” or doesn’t appeal to you. So why torture yourself, struggle to achieve your goals and end up being unhappy?

Go ahead. Set your New Year resolutions for 2009 using these principles. Breeze through 2009 and achieve your goals.

Here are my own New Year resolutions:

1.    Being in the Present

The first goal I’ve set for 2010 is to practise being in the present. The highly acclaimed book The Power of NOW by Eckhart Tolle has made such tremendous impact on readers across so many countries and continents. Zen philosophy has also advocated the practice of present moment awareness for centuries. In 2010, I will make conscious efforts to focus on the tasks at hand and secondly, to think less about the past or the future.

2.    Experiences beyond the usual in dining

I am promising myself to check out a new restaurant or try a totally unfamiliar cuisine once every 3 months. If I like the experiences and the novelty, I will do it more often.

3.    Bringing teaching to a new height

I hope to become better at teaching maths and help my students learn and understand maths with more ease. Students who started lessons with me usually came with a negative attitude towards maths or told me they found it “confusing” and “hard”. A personal accomplishment would be for me to hear my students having a much more positive experience and attitude and telling me that maths is “easier to figure out nowadays”.

The day I will hear such comments from my students…I am certainly on the way to achieving this goal.

Marilyn Chee is a Singapore-based freelance educator in mathematics and phonics reading. Contact her at leyichee@yahoo.com.