Being born in the baby boom generation, I recently turned 50. I decided to use this milestone as a time reflect on plans for the second half of my life. Many people are going through similar transitions, whether it's turning 50, or 60, or retiring, so I thought I'd share some of my thoughts and lessons learned. In 2009 I joined the ranks of the unemployed for 11 months. I ended up with a good job in Austin Texas, but I’ll always feel a sense of solidarity with those still unemployed.
Friday, December 28, 2012
Skipping New Year's Resolution in 2013?
Contemplating New Years' resolutions and plans during that down time between Christmas and New Year's Day has been one of my favorite activities. Peter Bregman tries to make an argument that we should consider not doing this. His arguments are that it can drive unethical behavior in organizations - employees focus on meeting their numbers goal at the expense of the customers. For individuals, Peter instead suggests that people should focus on the behavior they want, the path they want to take, and not on the numbers. For example, focus on establishing heating healthy habits instead of loosing a specific number of pounds. If you do that, you will have a good chance of meeting and maintaining a good healthy weight.
Yea, that has a lot of appeal to me. But isn't that really just changing the type of goals you set - away from arbitrary numbers and towards desired behavior changes? I still like contemplating new goals for the new year.