The New Year is a time for resolutions. A time to hit the refresh button on ambitions, goals, and desires…and set up a game plan for the New Year.
Many people dismiss New Year’s Resolutions as silly and pointless. That couldn’t be further from the truth… Making New Year’s resolutions should NOT be taken lightly!
The making of a firm and determined new course of action is an ancient and revered ritual, from the promises Babylonians made to their gods at the start of each new year, to the Romans resolutions to the god Janus, from which January is named. There are religious parallels as well. During the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah and culminating in Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement), one is to reflect upon one’s wrongdoings over the year, seek and offer forgiveness, and set upon a new path.
Either way, the concept of New Year Resolutions is to reflect upon self-improvement annually.
However…the New Year Resolutions made in haste in the dying moments of the year, dissipate and vaporize barely before the new year has begun. And so, Resolutions should not be made carelessly.
For a resolution to work, it needs to be three things:
(1) achievable
(2) specific
(3) active and held accountable
Many people make resolutions so huge, so attainable that they collapse under their weight almost instantly. “To be on a television series”. “To change my body”. “To be a better business person”. For a resolution to work, the “change that we resolve to take” needs to be within sight. Better to re-write your resolutions in three months time because they have all happened, then quit all your resolutions before the month is through because they are not attainable.
Be specific. A specific resolution is something you will need to face. A general resolution is something so murky and vague, it’s easy to hide from it. “To change my body” means very little. “To register for dance classes at Dance Teq” is specific. It’s clear.
Make your resolutions active. “To do this”…not “To become this”. If your resolution is “Be a better business person”, it will not happen. If it is: “To build a better business plan around my specific mission statement as an actor”…that can happen.
The MOST IMPORTANT STEP is to make yourself accountable…to SOMEONE ELSE. Get two or three friends together, hold each other accountable to each other. Set dates for your resolutions and check in with each other.
Be ruthless in serving your friends/colleagues resolutions, and yours will happen as well.
So what kind of resolutions should you make…?
The word “resolution”…comes from the latin resolutionem “breaking into parts, reducing into simpler forms”. The word “resolution” has also come to mean in our technology age: the clarity of the image on your screen based on the high number of pixels.
So…for us to make sense of how to make LASTING and EFFECTIVE resolutions that are clear and “high resolution”, we also need to break it into it’s parts…
RESOLUTIONS break down into three major categories: PERSONAL, BUSINESS, and ARTISTIC. And these three categories break into their own three sub categories. Meaning you have NINE resolutions to make…plus ONE.
Here they are:
PERSONAL
– physical change:
– emotional/spiritual change:
– intellectual change:
BUSINESS
– product development:
– relationship development:
– project development:
ARTISTIC
– skill practice:
– emotional exploration:
– intellectual study:
PLUS ONE:
– resolution to be held accountable to the above nine
Now, simply fill in the blanks and get changing!
For example:
PERSONAL
– physical change: take dance classes once a week at Dance Teq
– emotional/spiritual change: learn to meditate on gratitude once a day
– intellectual change: watch one Ted Talk a day, read the New Yorker weekly
BUSINESS
– product development: finish a business plan and refine my “Brand”
– relationship development: introduce myself to suchandsuch Casting Director
– project development: find young film maker to work on my short film
ARTISTIC
– skill practice: put an audition on tape every Friday
– emotional exploration: meet other actors to practice emotional preparations
– intellectual study: practice translating behaviour into transitive verbs
HERE IS TO A HAPPY AND FULFILLING NEW YEAR!
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