Last week, my friend confidently told me his New Year’s resolutions for 2012: eat healthier and lose 30 pounds, bring down his blood pressure and learn a new language. I laughed because these were the exact same resolutions he made last year — and then quickly forgot.
Sound familiar? The beginning of the new year is a natural opportunity to reflect on the past and make resolutions for the future. It’s common that such resolutions rarely survive the month of January, much less the entire year. Is it that we’re not disciplined or motivated enough? Not necessarily. I believe the fault lies in resolutions themselves.
Too often on New Year’s Day, we make spur-of-the-moment promises with no clear action plan of how to achieve them. Most of us expect to see a drastic change in just a few weeks when, in reality, a significant and permanent change can take months to realize.
I have personally stopped making annual resolutions; instead, I embrace the power of continuous improvement. Taking a note from my Agile software teams, I’ve taken to making numerous small changes in my life that, combined together, have a big impact. For example, I recently decided to reduce the carbohydrates and glutens in my diet. I still eat them, just less of them. It may not sound as impressive as completely cutting these foods out of my diet, but it’s a change that I can realistically sustain. Similarly, rather than committing to losing 30 pounds in a year, I have started by trying to loose 3 pounds in 30 days. By layering such incremental improvements on top of each other, I create goals I can achieve. Each small success builds momentum and the confidence that I can permanently change my lifestyle for the better.
So whether you are trying to build a great software product or just fit back into your old jeans, take an Agile approach rather than a “big bang” approach. Commit to one or two small goals at a time, measure their impact, and adjust accordingly to make them permanent features in your life. If you repeat this process over the next year, I’m very confident you will amaze yourself.
I look forward to hearing your stories of resolutions either made or broken, as well as what techniques you’ve found make a lasting difference.
Wishing you all a happy, healthy and prosperous new year!
This Post was an Agile collaboration between Peter Harrison & Mayank Gupta of GlobalLogic
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January 17th, 2012 at 2:33 am
Absolutely true..And I am following it already
January 17th, 2012 at 5:46 am
Superb!!!!! what an innovative idea to AGILIZE New Year Resolution……
I am confident it would work & not let the New Year resolution for 2012 go for a toss………..
Never clicked to apply Kaizen to my weight loss program….always tried attacking Big Bang & failed……….
January 18th, 2012 at 10:34 am
Want to share my feedback about this article.
Actually, it is something like similar to me – making small things continuity. And even more – don’t stop the making something, even it is more difficult to achieve than expected.
Certainly I am talking about my hobby – making photos. This hobby is a similar to many other people now, but I started it more than 14 years ago. Sometimes I filled that something in my approach to should be changed, but continued to make the same things. Then I realized that my current activity is not getting so positive feedback, as I expect. And, in the latest vacation, I tried to make panorama photography. One case – is to make picture, and another – bring pictures to life, process it, and produce the result. I continued to work with pictures, didn’t stop at the first stage, got a result. And then I got a positive feedback from my friends and other people. That is a pleasure for me.
And the similar things are appears in work. Executing smaller tasks, but which can be executed in defined timeframe is better than taking big tasks with no-limit time. Taking new knowledge, with exactly understanding what I know and what I don’t know for the current moment is better than say “I know everything”, when it is not true. Such approach is giving ability to getting new knowledge starting from the certain point. And continue doing what was planned is most important, than just doing something.
And also I asked quite frequently myself “What is an exact goal?” and “Is the goal still the same, as it was at the beginning?” And I often those two questions allows to preserve efforts and not to do excess actions. So that efforts can be used for other, useful activity.
Thank you for the post and I also want to wish you Happy New Year!
Kind regards,
Kravchenko Nikita
GlobalLogic Ukraine
January 21st, 2012 at 12:25 am
A collaboration, huh? …so which of you is losing the weight? ;o)
January 25th, 2012 at 10:20 am
Thats really a nice idea.. The idea of loosing 3 pounds in 30 days doesnt look like a bigger idea.. but the result is 12*3= 36.. Its 6 pounds more compared to the 1 year 30 pounds goal.. small but more effective than a long term goal..
Thanks Peter
Regards
Goutham Gali
Rofous software pvt ltd., Hyderabad (Now Part of Global Logic)
January 25th, 2012 at 10:27 am
Thats really a wonderful idea.. Keeping small goals instead big makes us that we achieved something and it motivates us to do more. The goal loosing 3 pounds in 30 days is more effective than the goal loosing 30 pounds in a year. 3 pounds in 30 days looks small but looking deep into it 12*3=36 thats what comes to 1 year. The goal 3 pounds in 30 days looks small but compared to bigger goal but we get more output. Agile process motivates to do more.
Thanks Peter
Goutham Gali
Rofous software pvt ltd., Hyderabad, India (now a part of Global Logic)