Dear Me: A New Way to Tackle Your New Year’s Resolutions
Posted By Amanda Collins on December 31, 2011
From December 26th to January 15, we typically start to think about our New Year’s resolutions. We’ll lose weight, eat better, exercise more, spend more time with family and friends, be more focused on our business…. Everything we resolve becomes an exercise in reflection and often helps us to get on the right path. But what if you could go one step farther?
Cruising through my Facebook wall the other day, I saw that a friend mentioned reading his 2011 letter to the universe, noting that he had received everything he had requested, albeit not always in the way he expected. That got me thinking: Why not write a New Year’s letter to yourself? It’s a great way to get in the right mindset to achieve excellence, and it will serve as a reminder of how far you’ve come when you reflect back on it next year.
Last year, I created a series of 3×5 cards with daily affirmations: I’m a great friend, I am loving, etc. This year, however, I’m going to follow my friend’s lead and create a letter to myself. Whether you believe in a higher power, the universal law, or just your ability to have a say in how your life progresses, there are some basic guidelines when writing out these kinds of things:
Write it in present tense.
This isn’t a planning exercise; this is an “I am” exercise. Write your letter as if what you are saying is happening now. There is much more power in “I weigh 120 pounds” than there is in “I will lose 15 pounds in 2012.”
Be specific.
I know a writer friend who believes in the Law of Attraction, and when looking to attract a man into her life, she wrote on her affirmation list: “I am dating a man who is rich.” She got him alright: a penniless, car-less, unemployed man with the NAME Rich. She got what she said she wanted because she wasn’t specific. Reread your list looking for loopholes. If there are any, clear up your language.
Write it in longhand.
This is a tough one for me because I type much faster than I write, but there’s something to be said for the power in putting pen to paper. Draft it up first, if you need to (especially to work out the kinks), but then copy it on a sheet of paper with your own hand. This is a similar exercise to writing down what you need at the grocery store on a scrap paper. You always tend to remember handwritten notes better than those you keep in your head.
Be thorough.
Just as you should be specific, you should look at your life as a whole. Is this the year in which you’ll kick up your business to the next echelon? Will you buy that second home you’ve been wanting? Will you complete a new degree or certification? Don’t silo your life into just work or just personal; look at the whole package. You are a complete person with different goals, and you never know how they’ll overlap.
Be open to the results.
By nature, I’m a positive cynic. I don’t believe in much mysticism, but I figure it can’t hurt either. My house has some feng shui components because it’s a better way to decorate and organize. I follow Law of Attraction because I would rather think positive thoughts than negative ones. And because of my willingness to receive, things appear. That’s the approach you should take as well.
There’s a story about a man who is in a flood and lets a number of saving devices pass him by, asserting that his god will save him. When he shockingly dies, he is upset with his god, but upon meeting him is reminded that many people and devices were sent to save him. Don’t mistake a golden opportunity because it doesn’t present itself exactly as you thought it might.
Be grateful.
No matter what you have or don’t have, be thankful for it. I don’t have an abundance in the bank, but I have what I need, including a wonderful son and supportive friends. Focus on the positive results and you’ll soon see that you probably already have everything you’ve ever wanted, so you’re just opening yourself to have more in 2012!
When you head to a networking event, what is your goal? Quarterly, 
Earlier this week, I attended the 
Remember when your mom made spaghetti for dinner, and to test if it was done, she’d throw it at the wall to see if it would stick? If it stuck, it was done and ready to be served. These days, it seems like many companies are using the same strategy when it comes to their marketing initiatives: they just keep throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.
Often times, people get good ideas to start a business and just go forth full tilt. This can happen more frequently in a down economy, when jobs are scarce, especially if your business idea takes little to no start-up capital. But just creating a company doesn’t necessarily mean anyone will want to do business with you.
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Each year, as we turn the calendar from December 31 to January 1, we are encouraged to create “resolutions” for the new year. Often, these take the form of losing weight or eating healthier, but what about your business goals? It seems that we purposely create objectives that are amorphous and, thus, challenging to measure. You can’t track what you can’t measure, so this year, give yourself a set objective that is just outside of your reach, otherwise known as a BHAG.
As an entrepreneur, I have to “kill what I eat”—and if I don’t kill anything, I’m stuck eating Top Ramen. That fact can sometimes transform into approaching work with an “anything is good enough” attitude, but that’s not always what’s best for you, your business, or your clients.
I live in Phoenix, Arizona, the fifth-largest city in the US and arguably the small-business capital of the country. As a business owner, I do a lot of networking, averaging about three events per week (which is down from how many I used to do). Still, I have been amazed at the number of people who have no idea about things I take for granted to help grow my business or assist my clients.
While many business professionals, companies, and job seekers are on Twitter, I really wonder how many of them have a method to their madness. While Twitter can certainly be a way to keep up on the conversation of colleagues and friends, there’s so much more that can happen if the power is harnessed!