Another New Year… Now What?

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Tom Wall

There’s something about New Year’s resolutions that I just don’t like. And no, it’s not the actual resolutions. I think it’s the fact that so many of us (myself included) wait until some arbitrary date to finally do what we know we should already be doing.

The reality is that you don’t need to wait until Monday to do your best work, or Saturday to create a masterpiece. Every morning marks a new opportunity to get up and ‘seize the day’. We all get the same 24 hours, 365 times a year. What you decide to do with them is up to you.

Unfortunately somewhere along the way, a lot of us started to let clocks and calendars dictate how we live and work. We bought into the idea that certain days of the week/year are better for giving our best efforts. And maybe that’s a good thing. After all, if it weren’t for birthdays, New Year’s, and other holidays, we might never get around to doing or saying what we need to!

Although most of our resolutions barely make it to February, we still feel obligated to make them every January 1st. But what if you finally quit making these empty promises to yourself? Instead, what if you decided to make just one disciplined change in your daily routine and actually intended to live it every day?

What do you need to do differently in 2012? Can’t think of anything? How about joining me by committing yourself to spend more time “working on the business, and not just in the business”? Instead of just working hard at doing the same tasks over and over until every day starts to look the same, invest in yourself and the value you bring to your team.

As fortunate as we’ve all been to remain busy during these tough times, it turns out that busy can actually be a bad thing. You see, when you’re really busy doing all the ‘work’ and not focusing on improving it, you’re like the lumberjack who’s too busy chopping wood to stop and sharpen his axe.

“But”, you say, “If I don’t do these jobs, then who will?” You know what, you’re right. A year from now, Jan. 3, 2013… you will be. And if you don’t eventually change that, every January, year after year, you’ll be in the same place as you are today.