Saying No to New Year’s Resolutions and Measuring the Meaningful Instead
Happy New Year! Is it just me, or are you also a little skittish about making plans, promises, or predictions for 2022? After all, we’ve been caught expecting too much of a new year before.
It’s hard to deny the seasonal urge to review and reevaluate our lives at this time of year. Many of us may resolve to do things a little differently. Personally, I’m resisting the temptation to make resolutions, and instead I’m simply identifying meaningful things that I will track. Resolutions tend to backfire. Tracking things can lead to knowledge and insight. When we track something by taking the time to routinely document it, then we can know and understand ourselves better. From there, we get to choose what we do with that information.
As the esteemed management guru Peter Drucker famously didn’t say, “what gets measured gets managed”. The story of what was really said and by whom is a topic for another day, but the saying has stuck with me. Over the years, I have measured or tracked a lot of things. I mean, A LOT OF THINGS. This is not to say that these were all important things, or remotely the right things to be focused on, but they informed and gave shape to my life in different phases.
Like many teenage girls in the 80s, I tracked the obvious — calories, weight, mix tapes curated, and number of boys kissed. Then in college I kept count of even more meaningful things, such as number of concerts attended, remaining bank balance, and GPA. Later there were budgets and 401K balances, hormone cycles, and number of books read. More recently — ok, major self-own dork alert here — I’ve kept a spreadsheet of my total cholesterol, blood pressure, glucose, and vitamin D levels. Look at your own trend line of any of these things regularly, and I guarantee it will make a difference in your daily choices. Seeing the 2018 to 2020 year-over-year uptick in my glucose levels scared me straight. In 2021, I succeeded in cutting my sugar intake and bringing down that trend line, and I have the Excel graph to prove it.
So, what will I monitor in 2022? I’ll likely continue with the spreadsheet on my health numbers — that seems to be a worthwhile effort. I’m also starting to track the number of days I sit my arse down to write. If I aim to write three days a week, will I actually manage to achieve two days? Maybe I’ll add a line on my spreadsheet to record the number of days that I meditate, phone a friend, or do something positive to expand my network. For me, it’s being able to see the raw numbers that inspires action and adjustment. Capturing the true outcomes in tangible, visual terms versus relying on my generous memory allows me to prioritize and practice focusing on what matters to me.
As much as I believe in this method of bringing awareness to select areas of my life, I have learned that it’s best applied gently. No need to get fanatical about it. As you see your own patterns in things you decide to track, be kind to yourself. The data can surprise you. It may even cause concern. You may be inclined to judge yourself or react by setting unrealistic goals. I suggest taking an approach of curiosity with this new information and stopping short of judgement. Aim to tweak and adjust your actions, all the while practicing compassion to yourself. I remind myself routinely to enjoy the journey, and if I’m at least headed in the right direction of who I want to be and what I want to be doing, then I’ve achieved quite a lot.
That’s the trick, measuring what matters to you so that you can adjust and head in that direction, all while joyfully accepting who you are right here and now. I wish you all a beautiful new year filled with doing things that bring you a sense of purpose, good health, and anything else that sets you on your way to being your happiest best self.
