Ground Hog Day Resolutions Redux

By Gaz under Personal Growth

More years ago than I can recall, I gave up making New Year’s Resolutions because they always turned out to be empty promises to myself, and it was more honest to simply not make a resolution in the first place than maintain some kind of false pretense that I would keep to my resolutions for more than a month or two.

What went before?

I began following David Seah’s blog early last year, and in April found his genius Ground Hog Day Resolutions post. Dave argues that New Year’s Resolutions are generally made in the haze of too much food and drink from the celebrations throughout the previous week, while we’re still busy trying to tie up the loose ends of the previous year. Before long those resolutions fade into distant memory, and it is all too easy for us to quietly let them slide. By contrast, Ground Hog Day Resolutions are made on the 2/2, with a clear head a month and a day into the new year, when any hangovers (alcohol or productivity wise!) from last year have been taken care of. The resolutions are then revisited every month and a day after (on 3/3, 4/4 etc) to keep them fresh in mind, and to maintain our focus.

As an added incentive to work at our Groundhog Day Resolutions throughout the year, Dave and some of his disciples (myself included) are making ourselves publicly accountable by reporting on our progress on each review day.

What needs fixing?

Despite the fact that we all made good progress with our resolutions last year, it wasn’t plain sailing by any means. We were each struck by a malaise in the Autumn, and found it especially difficult to stay on the wagon. Additionally, we all felt the need to modify our resolutions as the year rolled past, and even to drop a few resolutions that seemed less relevant several months down the line.

1. The first problem is that having several resolutions is completely overwhelming at the start of the year, and maintaining all of them consistently throughout the year is nigh impossible. This meant that as I worked hard at something that was bad in the previous month, it took enough of my attention away from the other resolutions that something(s) else would bomb this month.
2. The Autumn blues was, I think, caused by having stared at the same several resolutions all year and become a little tired of failing here and there the entire time.
3. Finally, it would be nice to have some means to rotate new resolutions in if they became more relevant than what we picked several months ago.

Why Redux?

By revisiting Dave’s concept of Groundhog Day Resolutions after (almost) a year of practice and putting my own little twist on things, I want to try to address (my perceptions of) the shortcomings in the original system, and hope to have an even more productive 2008!

1. On Groundhog Day itself, and each following review day, I’ll make one resolution, and incorporate it into my daily routine for the whole of that month.
2. If the previous month went well, I’ll brag about it in the review post here at Azazil.net, and add an entirely new resolution to work on for the following month.
3. If things didn’t work out so good, then I’ll try to figure out why, and keep working at the same resolution for another month with some fresh insight.
4. On the other hand, I might decide after a month of daily work at a particular resolution that I was misguided in wanting to keep it in the first place. I’ll have learned something valuable about myself, and can stop working on that to move on to something new in that light.
5. I also might change the rules a little as the GR3Ds (Groundhog Resolution Redux Review Days) go by, to keep things interesting both for myself and for you, dear reader

Viva la Resolution!

Last year I lived on the road for 3 months, and then cranked up almost 50,000 air-miles moving between 5 separate addresses in 4 countries on 3 continents, all the while trying to remain productive and stay healthy without my schedule going to hell in a hand-basket.

As an antidote to the stress I gave myself holding all that together last year, February’s GR2 (Groundhog Resolution Redux) will be to start each week with a timetable of where I’ll be putting my time for the week ahead, and to examine it every day to make sure I know how I’ll be spending the day. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to reuse a given timetable for several weeks before my circumstances change enough (moving house again?) to warrant planning a whole new one.

In a month-and-a-day, I will indeed be living on another continent, and will report back on the results and decide upon my March GR2.

Related Articles

1. Groundhog Resolution Review Day
2. GHD Resolution Review Day 2
3. GHD Resolution Review Day 3
4. GHD Resolution Review Day 4
5. GHD Resolution Review Day 5
6. GHD Resolution Review Day 6
7. GHD Resolution Review Day 7
8. Groundhog Resolution Redux Review Day 1