Every year we make New Year's resolutions and those declarations drive our activities in January and sometimes through December. You can see the Diet books, stop smoking books and quit bad habit books all spiking on Amazon in early January.
Why don't we make resolutions that challenge us to magnify our strengths?
Think about it. Most resolutions attack the negative things we do in our lives. When was the last time you picked something you do well and resolved to be even BETTER in the next year? These resolutions not only leverage an existing asset, they gain momentum via positive feedback, and you might actually keep it.
In his landmark book, Now Discover Your Strengths, Marcus Buckingham makes a convincing case that it is far easier to increase your strengths than to eliminate your weaknesses. His book also gives you useful tools to help you identifty and isolate your greatest strengths. If greatness is something you want to achieve, take a different approach this year.
Write down three strengths that you have. Use your areas of success from home to personal to find these. Pick one of the three strengths and write out three things you can do, starting Janaury, to improve in that area. In 2004, I did this and it was the best New Year's resolution ever for me. I picked out my ability to speak in public as a strength and I started three habits in January; got speech coaches (Public Words), read about the great speakers (one book every other month) and begin to tape and listen to my talks (like a ballplayer looks at game tape). By the end of the year I felt like I improved in that area -- and I saw financial results from it too!
Try this exercise this year and be amazed at the power of positive resolutions that help your soar with your strengths in 2007!
Recommended read: Now Discover Your Strengths by Marcus Buckingham
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Focusing on strengthening one of your strengths is a great idea for the new year! One of my work colleagues (a financial planner) tells his clients that he works hard to be the best at his job so that they can stay focused on doing what they love and are best at.
I was fortunate enough to be recommended a book written by Jim Fannin called S.C.O.R.E. for Life (SCORE being an acronym for Self-Discipline, Concentration, Optimism, Relaxation, and Enjoyment) just before the holidays. In his book, Jim talks about the importance of having vision & goals in each of the arenas of your life (ie: Self, Family, Job, Hobbies) and how you can focus your thoughts into successful actions. He also mentions how the average person has 2000 to 3000 thoughts per day (60% of them being in mental chaos), while a true champion narrows, focuses and simplifies their thoughts down to about 1100 to 1300 per day!
This book is great if you feel like your mind is spinning at 300 mph constantly and you feel like you're getting very little accomplished. Its an easy read and I like Jim's style (he was/is a coach, so he's very concise and to the point). It's also a fantastic book to start off the new year.
Thanks for your great insight, Tim. Right now your blog is my homepage.
Posted by: Jenna | January 08, 2007 at 02:47 PM