HeartEthics

Will your resolutions for change -- whether for the New Year, or any time -- succeed or fail? Here are some basics that those who successfully keep resolutions know will help them get to completion successfully:

The way I use instruments like the MBTI® and FIRO-B® is as a window, not a cage. I realize that sometimes personality instruments are used to put people into boxes or cages, and use them as if they define limits. That's not my understanding or practice!

Happiness is hard to define, and hard to measure -- but people who feel more happiness are often also people who are more effective. They are able to see how to make the best of a bad situation, rather than becoming depressed by it.

And there's interesting new research that says that our happiness is largely -- not of course completely -- dependent on our own actions.

Two effective methods of increasing happiness:

While Robert's Rules often work with larger groups in formal meetings -- the main purpose for which they were written -- smaller groups, like boards and committes, sometimes find that such formal rules are barriers to cooperative, creative work.

I have found that the meeting facilitation information from the "Training for Change" website has valuable information in how to run joyful and productive meetings, and offer here a link to their guidance as a resource:

Here's an irony: my passion is to support change in the world and change in people. But part of the process of healthy change is acceptance that "It is what it is, it will be what it will be and who's here is who's here." A kind of observation plus embracing -- what is and what the possibilities are and who's in my relationship circles and even which parts of me are showing up right now.

How can you make resolutions you'll actually keep?

Making general resolutions to change ("I'll lose weight" / "I'll stop smoking" / "I'll do something about my job") rarely results in actually achieving what you resolve.

Those general statements are good starts, though.

Think smart. That's S - M - A - R - T -- a way to look at your goals, to make them work for you. New Year's resolutions are one kind of goal.