Marc on Resolutions

Haha! I had to laugh… I don’t even know what a “non-correlated asset investment” is, so I have no idea why anyone would want to do one!

Brad, you not only make goals every year, but you keep stats on your goals?? Wow, that’s some crazy stuff. I noticed that you shy away from the term “resolution” in favor of “goal”. Any particular reason for that?

I fall in line with Ed here I think: my resolutions tend to come and go. I don’t write anything down or necessarily verbalize any of my resolutions, although with all the talk about it, I can’t help but do some evaluation and looking ahead at what I would like to see change in the coming year. Internally, though, I want to rebel against the idea of resolutions, because more often than not they turn out to be demoralizing rather than motivating.

It’s not necessarily that goals/resolutions are bad in and of themselves. But they simply do not work if you don’t know how to make realistic goals. I’ve heard Brad’s sermon on that before. A sedentary person is wasting their time if they make a New Year’s resolution to work out for at least one hour a day. Seven days later when they’ve worked out three times for a grand total of 60 minutes, they will look at their resolution and say, “Well, I failed, I suck, I quit.” And another resolution goes down in a blaze of glory.

America is obsessed with the “all or nothing” attitude. Both my brothers know that I regularly rant on something along these lines. Be reasonable people!

Small, incremental change is achievable. Set reasonable and attainable goals, and don’t let the TV tell you that you need a whole new you. No you don’t. Turn off “The Biggest Loser” and “American Idol” and “Extreme Home Makeover” and take the first, small step. Take pride in the little things, and don’t fool yourself into thinking that the ship is sinking at the first minor setback. Those things happen. You don’t have to be perfect, you don’t have to be the best, and you don’t have to be “110% committed” or “passionate”. Keep at it, and over time (a lot longer time than American culture wants to sell you) you will probably find yourself where you wanted to be all along.