Alan Weiss on New Year’s Accountabilities

Forget about “resolutions,” which have as much power and authority as a Congressional resolution or UN resolution: zero. Here are some New Year’s Accountabilities:

• Take time to exercise and improve/sustain your physical health. Don’t get around to it when you can. Schedule the time and the trainer.
• Engage in at least one developmental activity per quarter. Build your assertiveness skills, or learn to paint, or develop coaching approaches, or take up an instrument or all of the above or whatever suits you.
• Acquire new friends. You don’t have to abandon the current ones (although some you probably should) but you do need to find people who can make you “stretch” and from whom you can learn.
• Lower your stress level. Stress is a killer, from masking talent to creating serious illness. Practice more patience and stop taking random events personally.
• Look at the larger picture. No matter who wins the next election the country will endure and prosper. Markets have to go down in order to go up again.
• You can always make another dollar, but you can’t make another minute. Use your time wisely. True wealth is discretionary time. Don’t let others steal it or take it.
• Start and end each day with a positive. It could be a prayer, a mantra, or a different reflection each day. Focus on what is going well, your strengths, and your best qualities.
• Don’t allow yourself to become a victim. Don’t listen to conspiracy theories (which usually reflect paranoia, by the way). Find ways to control your own fate and improve your own lot.
• Read widely and frequently. Inform yourself. Rise above the opinion substituting as fact on social media platforms.
• Plan to have a great time and relish in it, don’t feel guilty about it. You can help others best when you help yourself prior. Always put your own oxygen mask on first.

Alan is a colleague, mentor and friend. He is an international business consultant, assisting many Fortune 100 companies to succeed.