Welcome to the New Year! As we move into 2012, I'd like to share with you my new year's resolution: It is (per my previous President's Message) to maintain a healthy balance between my work life and my personal life. How's it going? I can honestly say, "So far, so good."
Resolutions usually involve looking back, reflecting on the past, then looking forward, and making a decision on how to move ahead.1 According to http://USA.gov, some top resolutions year after year are as follows:
1. Drink less alcohol;
2. Eat healthier;
3. Get a better education;
4. Get a better job;
5. Get fit;
6. Lose weight;
7. Manage debt;
8. Manage stress;
9. Quit smoking;
10. Reduce, reuse, and recycle;
11. Save money;
12. Take a trip; and
13. Volunteer to help others.2
Do any of the above strike a chord with you? How many of you have made a 2012 new year's resolution? How's it going so far? (It's not too early to ask that, you know.) Have you stuck to it? Pat yourself on the back if you are still moving forward with your resolution.
If, on the other hand, you are-how shall we put it?-not progressing as quickly as you'd like in your resolution, you are not alone. According to Tom Connellan, author of The 1% Solution for Work and Life: How to Make Your Next 30 Days the Best Ever, by the start of 2012, 88% of those who have made new year's resolutions will have broken them.3
These are some of the reasons that Connellan notes to be a cause of why resolutions are broken:
* Relying on motivation only. Important as motivation is, it's only 1 piece of the puzzle. It won't assemble the entire picture for us.
* Only thinking big. Many of our resolutions are too large, unrealistically ambitious.
* Changes, even when they're for the better, can take us outside of our comfort zones. Breaking away from the norm can require our strongest inner resources.
Doug Sundheim, coauthor of The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques: How to Get More Done without Driving Yourself Crazy, gives some advice to help keep your resolutions.3
* Prioritize a few very select, most important goals, and focus on them.
* Reduce information overload. Be ruthlessly selective in how you focus your attention, to better manage your time.
* Learn to say "No." That will help keep you on track as to what's really important to your life.
At our recent Society of Trauma Nurses (STN) board meeting, we discussed multiple projects, initiatives, and products that we will continue, develop, or implement in the next few years. We resolved to keep the work we do transparent to our membership and to keep our lines of communication open. We decided to focus on the "why" of this resolution, rather than the "how," because our members need to continue successfully moving this society forward into the future.
Upgrades to our Web site will make it easier for you to get involved. Please send us your thoughts and opinions. I have resolved that, as I complete my term as STN president, I will continue to hold our board accountable for our resolutions. We are not part of that 88%. We are firmly, actively, vibrantly part of that 12% of successful resolutioners.
Welcome to 2012. I hope you have all started this year on a positive note. Keep STN in your forethoughts. Keep your comments coming. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting many of you at the annual meeting in Savannah, Georgia, April 11-13, 2012.
REFERENCES