Not-Quite Resolutions

A Doggie's New Year's Resolutions

Should You Bother With New Year's Resolutions?

My Psychology Today article today makes the argument for and against making New Year's resolutions. It then offers suggestions for boosting the chances of keeping them.

Reviewing Your 2019: Toward a good 2020

There’s a simple reason why many people have a hard time identifying the year’s lessons learned: They don’t remember even all the important things that happened.

My PsychologyToday.com article today offers ways to help you remember the events, identify lessons learned and, in turn, a goal or three for 2020.

Identifying Your Secret Desires. . . and using them to make plans for 2020

We may have desires that we won’t even let ourselves think about, let alone try to achieve. Does one of your unspoken desires appear on the list I offer in my PsychologyToday.com article today?

What If You Could Start Over? 8 Questions to Help Trigger Ideas

At this time of year, how-to articles may suggest you make New Year’s resolutions.  But they usually eliminate a preliminary step: How to decide what to resolve? My PsychologyToday.com article today poses eight questions that may help.

A Self-Appraisal Leading to a New Year's Resolution

Year-end is a good time to inventory your life. So, my PsychologyToday.com article today asks you to look at seven aspects of lifeto see if there's something you'd like to change.

So You've Already Broken Your New Year's Resolution.

So you’ve already joined the Broken Resolution Club. Is it time to accept that resolutions get broken so you might as well kick back and down a brewski?

Maybe, but in my PsychologyToday.com article today, I encourage you to take a second shot and offer tips to make it more likely you'll succeed this time. .

In Praise of New Year's Resolutions

New Year's resolutions, like affirmations, have gotten a bad rep because most get broken.

But I'm a believer in setting goals and objectives. Without them, we rely too much on serendipity.

So today's PsychologyToday.com article encourages readers to make one or more resolutions. And to that end, I share my own resolutions for 2016.

Get free career advice from me on KGO: Ronn Owens Program

KGO's Ronn Owens after interviewing President Obama

Tomorrow, Thursday, Jan 9, from 11 AM to noon, I'll be making my every couple-month appearance on KGO's Ronn Owens Program. 

The focus will be on offering fresh advice for employees, employers, and on self-employment. And you can call in to the show for my customized advice. From anywhere in the Bay Area, call 8080-810. That will work for all area codes.

The Two Keys to Achieving Your Goals and Keeping Your New Year's Resolutions

You can set goals and make New Year's resolutions but you'll probably fail unless you remember one thing: stay conscious.

Let's say you want to lose 20 pounds in six months. That meets all the usual criteria for a good goal: realistic, specific, and important. But you will fail unless you stay conscious of the importance of your achieving your goal, from the moment you start thinking about eating through the moment you finish or get distracted by something else. Without that vigilance, it's just too easy to succumb to "Ooh, that food will taste good." It may also help to break your goal into a small step:one pound in the next four days, for example.

Another example: You want to land a job within three months and, to that end, you want to put in 30 good hours a week. During those 30 hours, you must stay conscious that you must put in the time, reminding yourself of all the benefits you'd get from landing a job. Again, it can help to break it down into smaller goals, for example, I'll make five calls today.

If staying conscious isn't enough, tell one or more people your goal and deadline and, if necessary, ask if you could check in daily. For example, ask if you could email them the letter grade A through F you'd give yourself for your day's work.

This Resolution's a Keeper

You know you should get a 360-degree evaluation: asking trusted colleagues for feedback on you. But most people are too scared to get it. Force yourself anyway. It's key to your growing. Besides, better to know the bad news so you can try to improve before it's too late.  And who knows? You may get more praise than you fear. 

Here's a good way to get your feedback: 

1. Use www.checkster.com to get anonymous feedback from your board of advisors:  bosses and coworkers you trust.

2. Review their feedback and pick one or two things you want to improve during the next week.

3. Daily, give yourself a letter grade on your progress. Record it on www.bellygraph.com

4. After one to four weeks, ask your Board of Advisors to reevaluate you on Checkster.

5. As desired, repeat steps 1-4. 

Also consider using that process to improve your personal life, perhaps selecting the person(s) you're living with as your board of advisors.