New Year's Evolution--part 1

Keywords: change, goals, New Year's, Resolutions

Categories: Health, Lifestyle & Living, Self-help, Personal development & Spirituality, Work, Business & Livelihood

Published On: Jan 11, 2010

Last updated on:: Jan 11, 2010

January seems to be a very popular time for new promises, plans, and resolutions. With the new beginning of the year, many people are prompted to make it a personal new beginning as well. However, even though making resolutions is still a very popular practice among us, many have begun to think of it as just another broken promise or failing ideal, and the statistics back up this claim with an estimated less than 10% of all resolutions ever being realized!

I must admit that this grim forecast of realized resolutions and my own experiences have caused me to fall out of love with this once very-important-to-me, annual ritual. Perhaps you can relate. Someone recently asked me if I had set my resolutions yet for 2010. This question was followed by a strangely awkward silence and a profound "nope, not yet" answer. As I thought more about it, I realized that I had no intentions of doing so either.

Then I came across a blog that sparked my interests in the subject of making resolutions. The author, Ellie Drake, founder of Braveheart Women, suggested that rather than make a New Year's resolution, we instead make a New Year's "evolution". She went on to explain than an evolution seemed like more of a "visceral committment" to her than a simple resolution ever had. You can read her blog here if you wish.

I do love the idea of evolution or what it means in my mind--which is growth and development, and when I looked up the definition of evolution in the dictionary, I found this: "Evolution is any process of formation or growth; development; a process of gradual, peaceful, progressive change or development." I thought 'yes, this is something I can take an interest in, get excited about, and maybe even be successful at!'

Even more than a 'visceral committment' or a more serious committment, I look at it this way...making a resolution is all about changing what you are 'doing'. Making a New Year's evolution is all about changing who you are 'being', and since everything you do stems from who you are and what you believe, doesn't it make great sense to change the 'being' first and then let the 'doing' come naturally?

As for the evolution I am hoping to go through, it is not about becoming somebody new but becoming more of who I really am...but that is another journal all together-part 2 coming soon.

I wonder what you all think about making a New Year's Evolution. Would love to hear your thoughts on it and what you might hope to evolve to.

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Keith Vxxxxxxxxx wrote at 03:17:48 AM on Jan 11, 2010

Of course, setting GOALS, as I've often called my resolutions will be enhanced by this ever so enlightening approach as to view these goals or commitments, things I would like to accomplish, as I view each one of them, I will apply the principle of New Year's resolution/evolution... how will and what can I do to evolve every one of these ideas to make certain I don't just meet the goals and accomplish them on paper, but in an added very real sense, I should be committed that each one of my goals or evolution statements apply real change and measureable examination as to how, once the year has ended, these evolution statements have really made me more of what I am and what I would to like be. SO, it is an exciting applicaition to goal setting. I have to now open my sealed resolution envelope and accept the challenge Linda has so adeptly indicates, "which is growth and development", instead of just measuring my growth my checking off the list to see if I had accomplished the goals I set the year before or not.

It is more meaningful, as I look at these goals, to me now because I have added to each one of the goals on my list how and why I want this to allow me to grow and develope into ... whatever the goal was in the beginning has now changed , into a very real way to measure my growth and developement. I have even now challenged myself to make the evoluation is all areas of development. SO , now I look at the spiritual, mental, physical, social, behavioral, and humanitarian aspects of my life and I have identified goals and grouped them in all of these areas.

This change has made 10 resolutions become 60 real areas of identifiable ways that I can grow and develope. Significantly these old resolutions as I have always called them have now EVOLVED into real measurable and identifiable ways that I as a person can commit to and really change/develope/evolve/"be" the best type of person I can be for THIS year.

Now, every goal has to be divided into several areas of definition. Meaning, one statement/goal/resolution has now been divided into why, how will it make me grow/develope? How will it effect others around me and allow me to develope as well as share with others as I change and develope?

I am sure this will EVOLVE over the next month and I will seal my envelope one more time BUT I have already changed in just making the annotations and comments on each goal and mulitipled by 6 times the amount of ways I want to challenge myself to grow and develope. Wow, this certainly is a more effective approach. THE PROCESS of simply changing these resolutions and goals into each area of growth and development that each area of change that we as people can change and grow and then also adding how I am going to be able to accomplish and measure what I have done with each area of my life... well, it has just started making the changes and finished five goals. Five statements that I usually just check off became 30 pages of growth and development in a spiritual, mental, emotional, humanitarian, physical, and social way.

This is a new journey that I am sure will evolve and change over the next month. I am going to anxiously await what else Linda will add to her next "chapter" and until then, I am working on my EVOLUTION Statements ... as with everything old and traditional it is always going to evolve and change!

I have done the same thing tradionally for several years. Of course, it is more complicated that just checking off a goal that you have met. Several things do happen during the year that challenge you to meet that goal. Through the years, my RESOLUTIONS have developed into challenges and accomplishments instead of just being a checklist of things like, "I will join a gym and workout five times a week" ... looking back, that was a goal I had when I had graduation from High School and now needed a place to exercise as I didn't have a gym like the one at school.

Even that goal, now that I look at it as a EVOLUTION instead of just a statement. I would have added... why am I going to do this and what will it do for me as a person? How will it effect my appearance, my self esteem? How can I use this goal to assit others? Should I be involving others around me so they can benefit and change along with me over the year though my example and efforts?What benefits other than having a nice body will I gain .. including how does this effect my daily ability to do school, work, and leisure time? Will it change the way I feel and help me emotionally and mentally? What effect does it have on society as a whole and does it effect the community? How can this also assist humanitarian efforts or who should I be volunteering to help attain the SAME change/evolution/ where it use to be simply a goal.

Did some of the above things happen when I accomplished my resolutions? Of course, some of them did. But, I never measured them or thought about how they were effecting myself, others around me, how I could make my goal meaningful to humanity, etcetcetc.

THE evolution/growth/change/and development now becomes a tangible, measurable, and effectual set of statements and questions that becomes a complex challenge. What once was a simple one line statement... has now evolved will and will evolve even more before I reseal my envelope, and once I have done that, and read what else Linda has to offer, I will elaborate on how this ONE change , this idea of EVOLUTION not RESOLUTION, has effected my ability to be the best I can be and involve all those within my reach and beyond, to change and develope into the best human they can possibly be.

Thanks for the ever so subtle change and idea that if followed will revolutionize ... yes, fundamentally change ...the way we approach our GOALS/Resolutions... so, by all means possible, change your RESOLUTION to be EVOLUTION... or as Webster defines it as one of it's definitions, " progression of interrelated phenomena" that in itself shows us if we, as one person, makes several evolutionary changes in ourselves, we are so connected, interrelated that we will automatically effect others around us......

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Keith Vxxxxxxxxx wrote at 09:10:35 AM on Jan 11, 2010

I wanted to leave you with one resolution I did change. This resolution was to make a video/cd/dvd/download of an exercise in bed for bed ridden or otherwise challenged (post surgery mostly in bed, etc) and have it ready to distribute and marketed before June and by the end of the year, have sold on-line and paypal as many copies as possible. This goal was certainly attainable but it lacked exactly what Linda inferred in her journal entry: a challenge to make the resolution evolve into an evolution with regard as to change, development not only for me but for the interreated world around me which allows me to fit into the horizon of people exactly where I want to fit. SO, in order to change and develope I used the six areas of what I call disciplines which the goal might fit. Mental, physical, etc. I also added creative... as it was on the list of another well known life planning site...

THE type aerobics which is something I've done for several years now combining physical therapy with exercise in bed... because of injury, spinal problems, surgery, and other physical challenges. FOR me this was physical. So, I made a notation as to why, where , what and how this evolutionary project would benefit me physically. Then, I also noted how it might/or how I see it effecting others. Then, I also added creative and humanitarian challenges in writing. Once I had the now Evolution Exercise had many new dimensions. I scheduled in my mind going to retirement centers, where I had lead music in the past on a volunteer basis, and not only taking the video/cd/etc. but also providing on-site live demonstrations and actually taking the elderly through the paces of the physical exercise. I filled an entire page... making a one line goal EVOLVE into an entire more well rounded and more pervasive in my change,development, and in the community/humanity that I am a part of. Now, the challenge was making this resolution into something that through self discovery this an amazing tool makes me look forward to next January when I actually sit down and review how much I have been able to add to my own life as well as others around me. Resolutions tend to be "me" specific and evolutions are "we" specific by definiton and I envision an entirely new phenomean evolving with Linda's catalytic challenge to really look at a widely practiced tradition call New Year's resolution and make the tradition evolve with the progressive attitude she calls, "Power In WE"... that is one example and I've only finished one ... before I seal my evolutions, I hope to read what others are doing so that I might learn more from others doing the same/similar thing... evolving.

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