Why I failed at some of my resolutions

I am disappointed at myself. No. Restart. 

This sounds too sad, I am rarely that angry at that myself. Thanks God, I am alive and can still learn from my mistakes.

Each year at this time, around my birthday date, I take some time to reflect on various aspects of my life. I consider this as the opportunity to evaluate what good steps I have taken, what resolutions I have achieved and what successes I need to celebrate (I do celebrate a lot, and I like to acknowledge positive events that happen in my life each now and then). Also, it is for me the occasion to think about the errors I have made, the wrong decisions I have taken and the promises I did not keep.

Last year, I made and shared a list of 23 resolutions I was supposed to make concrete throughout the past 12 months. Writing down my thoughts is my way of putting ideas into action. This is how I clarify my thoughts, express my ideas and visualize them, and this technique has always worked for me.

As I went through my resolutions' list, I came to the conclusion that I only achieved 60% of my goals. 

I could go on and find myself some good excuses, such as the huge shift that happened in my life after I moved to a new city, started work, took on new responsibilities, etc... However, instead of that, I am going to tell you what are the main five reasons why I really could not complete ALL of the objectives I set to myself last year.

1. Too much flexibility: let's take the example of my blog. I did not keep it updated because I wanted to be flexible with myself. I didn't want to choose a day to write my blog entries on, I thought this would pressure me into writing when I did not wanted to. Now that I go through my articles, I find tens of them 'unfinished', 'not edited', and even 'just titles' or nice 'ideas' I wanted to develop. This happens also in other areas of my life. I thought this would reduce the amount of stress I pressure my life with. But I was wrong !
2. Not enough planning: last minute decisions are not what I am the best at. If I have succeeded in doing things in the course of my life, the reason is because I have planned them. I did not keep this habit much this year (joins the flexibility point). I had my little agenda but I did not use it very effectively. This made me skip events I would have loved to attend, forget about deadlines I should have kept in mind.
3. Not enough milestones: if there is one thing I will always remember from my project management class it surely is 'milestones'. In order to achieve a goal, we need to break it down to many sub goals. This can be organized over time: short, medium and long term goals. The important is that each goal should be divided into actions that need to be completed before it is achieved. And for resolutions, which could be considered as ongoing goals aimed at changing one's lifestyle, there should be milestones. For example, if I had sat with myself each three months to evaluate the progress I made in different resolutions, I would have certainly achieved more.
4. Too much perfection: I am that kind of person who prefers not doing something rather than doing it poorly. The thing is, this is not how life, in general, works. Actually, sometimes it's better to do a little something, to achieve a part of the goal rather than give it up. This year made me realize that in the process of shooting for perfection, I should also keep in mind that nothing starts big, that it takes time, effort, errors and experience to shine at something. A little passion and love help, too.
5. Not enough precision: My resolutions of last year were not really specific to my own life. Almost everyone could have taken my list and made it his/her own. It was too broad, too vague and I tried to encapsulate as much as I could in each one of my goals. 

Ok, even this blog entry is not very precise, but that's another story: I chose not to disclose all of my resolutions of this year and to keep a little to myself. Now the 24 resolutions of this coming year inchaAllah are very 'me' oriented, concise, precise, realistic but full of hope, dreams and positive energy. 

May your life be full of achievements, success, satisfaction and completeness.