Did you know that the tradition of setting resolutions at the start of every new year dates back to ancient times? Of course, the custom hasn’t always looked the way it does today. “Resolution” is defined as “a firm decision to do or not to do something.” Way back when, resolutions were strictly theological and ones fortune for the year was contingent on whether or not they followed through on their decision – yikes! This ‘all or nothing’ implication might explain why only 8% of people who make resolutions actually follow through. After all, life has been known to throw curve balls that can require you to change course.

Fortunately, the practice has evolved and the focus now is more about setting goals for yourself. A “goal” is defined as “the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.” See, not as intimidating, huh? Goal setting is more fluid and lets us highlight our intentions for positive change. If you don’t meet your resolution by the end of the year, you’ll be angrier with yourself than if you made progress in working towards a goal. A recent article by Anna Buckley does a great job at explaining this thought process.

What is the benefit of setting goals?

The importance of goal setting is something that we often discuss with our clients who express concerns of feeling “stuck.” In addition to the the many studies that show goal setting leads to success, the simple truth is, unless you try to do something beyond what you’ve already mastered, you will never grow. Now, the easy part is acknowledging the value of setting objectives. The hard part might be figuring out what you want to achieve – where do you even start? Well, you might have read our blog last November that discussed the benefits of trying new things. Interestingly, an article covering the 10 most common New Year’s Resolutions explains that a recurring theme each year is actually learning new things – neat! In addition to the positive effects on your mental and physical health, new experiences can expose you to unique interests which might lead to the exciting discovery of a new passion. So if you need help picking a goal for this year, perhaps you can start by saying “yes” to unfamiliar adventures and see where that leads.

The RDF team has run with this concept by the launching of our First Annual “Explore” contest on November 1, 2018, and the results are pretty impressive! Collectively we’ve tried 46 new activities, 25 new types of food and visited 37 new places. Some of highlights include trying octopus, archery and Jui Jitsu! The Jui Jitsu experience actually lead to one of our CEO’s 2019 goals of earning his first belt – way to go Dan! Our contest ends on January 31st, so stay tuned to find out not only who our winners will be, but to also read more inspiring adventures. As we highlighted last month, the objective of this challenge is to help us stay happy and healthy in order to work stronger together as a team as well as better help our clients.