- Posted by:
- anjci
- Under:
- Everyday musings
According to recent research, most of us end the year by making resolutions for the next one, with over a half believing they would achieve their targets. Sadly, a year-long study of 3,000 people showed that only 1 in 10 of resolution makers will be successful. Quitting smoking and losing weight seem to be the hardest goals to achieve.
The results also state that men increase their chances of success by setting more specific goals, while women – by sharing their goals with others. Indeed, peer support helps the women to raise their chances of success by 10%. Another major lesson of the research is not to leave the final effort till New Year’s Eve but to spread it evenly over the entire year.
A while ago, I too developed the habit of ending every year with a list of resolutions. As we are well into 2009 but not quite on New Year’s Eve, I will try to increase my chances of success by sharing the list of my 2009 resolutions with the world. It is also a good time to check my performance on those to date.
> To learn Greek to a high degree of fluency: Failed. At the time of setting this target, I was residing and planning to work in Greece, which made the knowledge of the corresponding language vital. One month into 2009, I knew I was going to flee the country and halted all language practice. In March, I moved back to London. While I can still understand everyday conversations and interact with my Greek friends in Greek, my “high degree of fluency” hopes have safely been buried.
> To find an interesting, well-paid job in Athens: Failed. I guess an “interesting, well paid job in Athens” was an oxymoron to start with. After my hapless month-long job search, I could not have been more unrealistic. And I knew it myself. However, I did a much better job in finding an interesting, well-paid job in London – with an added advantage of fantastic colleagues, challenging projects, plentiful travelling, great job benefits and excellent lifestyle. In short, it never hurts to beat the self-imposed targets.
> To find / furnish / make cosy a nice flat in the vicinity of my Athens gym: Failed. Finding a flat in Athens was always subject to having a secure workplace there. On top of it all, my gym was in Maroussi part of Athens, which I never liked too much. I did however succeed in finding a flat in the vicinity of my London gym – and workplace – and managed to make it cosy without depleting all my savings. Blessed be the furnished flats!
> In Greece, to visit Kerkyra, Prespa Lakes, Skyros and Volos: Failed and hit. During my last weekend in Greece, I managed to fulfil my long-term ambition of visiting the Prespa Lakes in East Macedonia, as well as the coastal town of Volos. While the former absolutely stunned and inspired, I would not describe Volos an anything more than a much scaled-down version of Thessaloniki. The place is famous for its endless tavernas lining the waterfront, but even those were inaccessible on Clean Monday when we visited. With regards to Kerkyra (the Greek name for an island widely known as Corfu) and Skyros (a Sporades island in the Aegean), those will have to be transferred to next years.
> To plan my Greece exodus in two years: Impressive hit. That’s right. Already at the end of last year, I knew I was going to leave Greece sooner or later. It turned out to be sooner. I was ultra efficient and planned my Greek exit within a month of writing this. Without having told a soul!
> To sort out my heart matters – let go or develop what I have: Hit. Status quo was never an option, and I opted for letting go. At the end of the day, everything boils down to whether there are feelings involved. Sympathy or no sympathy, one has to be very selfish in these matters. The flipside is that others get hurt as a result – but such is life.
> To visit as much of ex-Yugoslavia as possible: Hit, hit, hit. By the end of September, I will have visited all former Yugoslavian countries except for the controversial pocket of land known as Kosovo. Having started the year with only vague familiarity with Croatia, I progressed to visit Macedonia for a long weekend in February and consequently to explore Slovenia on short work visits. I will spend 15 days zooming around Croatia, Bosnia & Herzegovina and Montenegro within days and then finally hit Serbia in late September.
> To visit Israel and Dubai / South Africa: Hit and hit. After a few failed visits, I finally covered Israel over Catholic Easter. And, while South Africa will have to wait, I have already booked a visit to Dubai around the New Year. My next resolutions list will most likely be drafted there.
> To buy a new bicycle: Hit. I had to leave behind my old GIANT when fleeing London in 2008, but my new Alpha Trek is a cutie. As I once told a friend, I would only buy a bicycle in a place where I was well-settled. Perhaps that’s why I never even allowed a possibility of having one in Athens. Rubbish roads and insane traffic did not help, either.
> To investigate MBA options for next years: Failed. Even better, decided to skip MBA in my life whatsoever and stick with my MSc. Somehow the idea of paying a fortune for the privilege of hitting the school bench again – with rather questionable results – has lost its appeal. You say networking? Sure. There must be a myriad of other ways to network, though.
> To keep in touch better with parents and friends: Failed on parents, hit on friends. This is really sad. The more my parents complain about being neglected, the worse I become. If I speak to them once a month, that’ll be often. With friends, however, keeping in touch has really improved.
> To drink not more than one bottle of wine per week: Absolutely hit. Somehow I have lost the taste for alcohol over the last months. I used to look forward to Fridays as the time when non-soft drinks could finally be consumed. Not anymore. If I manage one glass of wine or Pimm’s a week, that’ll be an achievement. I must be getting old! My budget responds with rather good spirits, however. No pun intended.
> To learn to ski downhill: Failed. This resolution is one of those which keep resonating from year to year. At least I have been unbeatably consistent in my failure to kill it. It looks like next year will finally bring an end to this trend, with me hitting the slopes – at last.
> To finish all the books I am reading: Failed. At the moment, I am still in the middle of half a dozen of entirely unrelated books on the subjects ranging from Britain during the WWII and the history of the Greek city of Thessaloniki. That’s in addition to covering the same number of travel guides on the countries which I am planning to visit. Or dreaming of visiting. Serbia and Croatia take turns in tucking me in every night.
To summarise, I can argue that not only men can benefit from setting more specific goals. One of the reasons I failed to achieve my skiing and reading goals was that I did not set the exact schedule to implement them. I can also dispute that telling others greatly improves one’s chances. Would the fact of telling friends about my desire to visit every corner of ex-Yugoslavia bring me anywhere closer to achieving that? My guess is that telling others can only be effective for self-improvement goals, such as smoking or fitness.
Other lessons I can draw from the above exercise are (i) travel plans can be quite effective with a bit of luck and determination; (ii) romantic considerations should be treated with extreme caution when making plans; (iii) important life decisions should be implemented without delay; and (iv) transferring resolutions to next year will most likely result in another failure, as those have effectively been written off a long time ago. Finally, one can always make plans, but life tends to take unexpected turns sometimes – so prepare yourselves for surprises.
I will try to remember those for my next year’s resolutions list. See you all in Dubai!
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