Forget the Resolutions pick up the phone instead!

At this time of year, a lot of people choose to make a new years resolutions and yet I have yet to hear of anyone, who has actually delivered results from their resolutions.

For years I also made a new years resolutions and year after year, I promptly forgot till a few years back, I decided that enough was enough. Today I prefer to do a new years acknowledgement and pick up the phone and talk to someone I care about and acknowledged them for the things I value most about them. I got the idea from my wife, who likes to end our family meetings with a round of acknowledging, what we love about each other.

If you can't come at acknowledging someone else (ask yourself why not?) another powerful thing you can do, is pick up the phone and call a friend and let them do the talking, while you give them the gift of listening to them without being judgmental or offering advice or trying to turn the conversation or trying to sound clever. Just listen and make them feel heard. You will be amazed, by how powerful it is just to make someone feel heard. These days listening is becoming rarer and rarer, as we are drowned in information.

Another thing you can do instead of making a new years resolution is to take action on a problem you face. Just start doing for 15 minutes a day starting today and again pick up the phone and ask someone for help and advice. The more you work through things with people the easier it is to get them done and this is another real secret. If you are in action, people want to pitch in whereas if you are just talking about something, people may nod and say yes, they are interested, but nothing will get done.

So whatever you choose, ditch the resolutions and pick up the phone (and no, email will not do!)

(Bill Liao/news.ch)