Challenging those Resolutions

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Happy new year!

I was supposed to write an article about life insurance but I just didn’t feel like it. Instead, I’m going to talk about resolutions.

Not every country or culture has new year’s resolutions, but the United States isn’t the only country to have them either.

They are those important part decisions-part wishes that we make at the end of the year and hope to follow through on the next one. You know, the quit smoking, join a gym, lose weight, read more, play more with the kids. We’ve all made them.

Chances are that we have all also failed on them. The reason for this is that most people go about resolutions the wrong way.

You see, most of us, when thinking of the changes we’d like to make, are usually engaging into wishful thinking without any actual plan or specific goal. And therein lies the problem: we’re vague.

A good resolution must meet five criteria: the first thing it must be is specific, because vagueness leads to loopholes, and loopholes lead to failure; it also needs to have a timeline for when you must be done; it must be personal in that everything that needs to be done about it depends on you, exclusively; it must be measurable or quantifiable in progress (if you say you’re going to lose weight, decide how much); and finally, and likely the most important feature after being specific, a resolution must be realistic. If you have a resolution that is enormous, it’s much better to divide it into workable smaller bits that are manageable –and measurable-.

If you have made resolutions for 2016, now it’s time to take a look at them and see if you might have not taken these points into consideration when making your list.

I have also noticed that we tend to be very selfish about our resolutions. I understand that we are the likeliest focus area when it comes to changing things, but today I write because when I started thinking about resolutions, I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if our resolutions were not just about ourselves, but that we found a way to extend them to areas, people, things outside ourselves?

That’s how I came up a new of thinking about resolutions, and I made a list of what I intend to do this year based on them. What I am going to do, and I challenge you to try the same, is to come up with three or the following types of resolutions. Three is a bare minimum, and if you can manage to aim for 5 you’ll be a hero, if you can manage them:

- A change in your life that is good for your health. These resolutions are the most common ones and, in my case, this year I vow to start yoga.

- A change in your life that is good for the environment.

This is unusual, but haven’t you always known that there were some things that you could do to help the environment? To recycle more, to use the compost, to start your own compost for that matter, or to start using reusable grocery bags and do away with plastic? I am sure you can think of something to fit into this category! I vow that I will find a place here in Helsinki to take all those broken small devices, keyboards, phones, remote controls… and do away with all of ours.

- A change that is good for your wallet. Not everyone might be able to come up with a resolution in this area, but I can make a few suggestions that will help if you aren’t good at saving money. For example, how about at the end of each month whatever is left in your checking account, you put into a small separate savings? Then at the end of the year you can buy yourself something nice, with money you saved over the year. Or how about starting a Club account for your Christmas presents, or set up a transfer of a percentage of your take-home pay to a savings account?

It doesn’t have to be much, and every bit helps. Think on it! Alternatively, if you have debts, remember that you will save on interest by paying them off earlier, so a way to help your wallet can also be paying more to your loans on any months that you have that extra cash.

- A change that is good for society and that makes you feel (and be) a better individual. You can decide to volunteer, or to join one fundraiser; I discovered an AMAZING site that matches people who want to help with non-profits that need volunteers, globally. The name is Volunteer Match.

There are many other ways to make a difference that are not volunteering, too.

For example, our family has decided that we’re going to start by being vegetarians 5 days a week, in order to stop consuming meat, because it’s destroying the world’s forests and many ecosystems.

- A commitment to do one thing you have been meaning to do but have put off. I am sure that if you think about it, there is one thing you want to try doing or learning to do. In my case, I vow to take one HHML course, because it will help with this blog but also because it’s something I’ve always wanted to learn.


Are you up for this challenge? If you’re the kind of person who performs better when reporting to others, then I challenge you to pick your 3 or more resolutions, and list them on the comments, or even email them to me (blog@oasfcu.org). Personally, I am one of those people who do better when held accountable, so I vow to report on the status of my four stated resolutions once every quarter and if I forget feel free to remind me!

My warmest congratulations go out to Manuela Souza de Sampaio,winner of the third and final drawing of $75 among those subscribed to read this blog regularly. Thank you for following me!