Around this time of year there is a tendency to establish new year’s resolutions. The rest of the year they are called personal goals. Or as I like to call them, opportunities for failure.
Back in the day failure was a bad thing. Vince Lombardi used to tell us that second place was for losers, it was win or be a loser. Failure was not an option.* Apparently today failure is the only option if we want to be successful. We are told not just to fail but to fail often and well. Fail forward fast they say. I think this advice is given by very successful people who know that their success is contingent upon the failure of others. However, we always listen intently to the advice of very successful people regardless of how they achieved their success**, so these opportunities for failure seem to be the pathway to success and make sense in today’s failure focused world. I am concerned that perhaps I haven’t been failing fast enough? Or failing backwards instead of forwards? Or if I get too good at failing I may in fact succeed, which to me seems like a failure to fail.
One technique that we are advised to take when it comes to goal setting is to make your goals public. That way you can’t give up on them right away without looking like the weak-willed non-committal failure you are, that being the same type of person that is supposed to be today’s foundation for success. With that in mind I have listed my personal new year’s resolutions so that when I fail at them you will know I am failing forward fast and on the path to success. I do like to succeed occasionally so a few of these may appear easy to achieve, but fear not, I intend to successfully fail most of them.
COMDB New Year’s Resolutions
Watch the Leafs bring home the cup again. But this time in colour.
Finish that book I got for Christmas 3 years ago.
Run for office (just kidding, I’m a kidder).
Clean my office (more realistic than running for office but still a stretch goal).
Hydrate.
“You say you made a resolution, well we’d all love to see the plan”.****
Happy New Year. Wish me luck.
*Editor’s Comment: Although this quote is often attributed to Gene Kranz, Flight Director for Apollo 13, it appears to have originated from the script writers from the movie “Apollo 13”. Al Reinert and Bill Broyles were interviewing FDO Flight Controller Jerry Bostick and asked him “Weren’t there times when everybody, or at least a few people, just panicked?” His answer was “No, when bad things happened, we just calmly laid out all the options, and failure was not one of them.” From that response the movie tagline “Failure is not an option” was born.
**Editor’s Comment: For example, the book “Shoe Dog” catalogues the road to success for Phil Knight, founder of Nike. My advice would be not to follow in his “footsteps”.
***Reviewer’s Comment: As an alternate to the Beachbody program, I developed the Beachball Program™ as an exercise program for the rest of us. I did my research and found out that muscle is denser than fat, so a pound of muscle should be heavier than a pound of fat, right?1 So, if I eat what I want (chips and dip) and drink what I want (craft beer) and do what I want (not exercise) and gradually replace muscle with fat I should lose or at least maintain my present body weight. I don’t need much muscle to pull in a 4 pound bass. So far my program has been working out, and I haven’t.
1Editor’s Comment: It appears that our reviewer is denser than both muscle and fat.
****Editor’s Comment: Paraphrased from the Beatles 1968 release “Revolution”. From their double album “The Beatles” also known as “The White Album”
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