Don Kowalewski
Writer. Ad Sales and Marketing. Social Media Content Creator. Aeropress Coffee. Makes the best salsa in the world.
Things I’m Doing: Resolving
One of my resolutions this new year is to blog daily? Why? Ya know, I’m not really sure, but I know one thing …when I’m writing and creating, I’m happier. 2013 was supposed to be a great year for me. I was leaving a career of 16 years, and a company I’d been with for 10 years, to take a chance on a young company and it’s start-up, niche division, to build out its sales strategy, sales, and seek my fortune.
I didn’t make a fortune. I left that job. And I’m back in radio, selling advertising, and even managed to be hired back by the company I left. More on both those things in future blog posts.
The point is, 2013 started and I did all the things that self-help books, blogs, and sales gurus tell you to do. I wrote down goals. I created a vision. I showed up every day, with enthusiasm (for a while), and on and on.
It didn’t work. What happened? I guess I wouldn’t be the first person who tried something and it didn’t work, right? Heck, it wouldn’t even be the first thing I tried, personally, that didn’t work.
I’m committed to making 2014 better. But how?
One word: Resolve.
I’m going to have “resolve” instead of a long list of resolutions.
Sure, I have the standard list …get back into running, slowly, avoid snacks after dinner, write daily, show up early to work, read a book every month (I’m going to start with the complete works of Elmore Leonard), call one friend every day, floss daily, write letters, start my salsa business again, and …you get the drift.
But more than all of this, as Jeff Goins recommends, is have resolve. I’ve approached New Year Resolutions like I approach sales, I guess. I maybe thought if I make 100 resolutions and actually stick with 8 of them, well, hey …I changed my life in 8 ways, right? The problem would always be, then, that I’d think about the 92 failures.
Jeff says…
Here’s the bottom line: Without a stronger resolve, you have no hope of accomplishing your resolutions.
In other words, you need to commit. To choose into an intentional process that will make you better. Not a set of audacious goals you’ll never meet.
So that’s my number one, and maybe only, resolution …learn to have resolve. To define what that means and to apply it to my life. Like today …despite the fact I maybe don’t have “writing time” and I had a bad nights sleep and because I don’t feel like I have anything worthwhile to say or write about, I used that as a basis for this entry. And when I hit “Publish”, as trivial as it may seem, I’ll feel like I had a little of that “resolve” to start the day, I won’t be thinking about the “writing I didn’t do” and my guess is it will carry me through the rest of the day.
Follow me on Twitter at @donkowalewski.
Oh, and when I hear the word “resolve” I think of The Police’s “Every Little Thing She Does is Magic” and Sting pining …
“I resolved to call her up, a thousand times a day. And ask if she’ll marry me, in some old fashioned way.”
But, his “silent fears” stop him. Now that’s another blog topic for another day.
Don Kowalewski 