A New Year’s Resolution Worth Considering
By
Bill Cottringer
Normally, I am not one for making or suggesting good New Year’s resolutions, maybe because I have seen too many short-lived ones dissolving after just a few weeks. However, I am going to make an exception to my own rule this year and make a resolution myself that I intend to keep. And, it might be a template you can use to make your own resolution which will undoubtedly be a lot easier to keep, than promising to lose 50 pounds, cutting out smoking and drinking altogether, or making your first million bucks. Here goes:
“I will start re-noticing things I have either forgotten to notice for too long or things I have failed to notice all along.” Here are a dozen things I think are worth all of us taking the time and making the effort to notice, month by month for 2015:
1. Noticing the point of no return in personal and work relationships before this point comes and goes and opportunity turns into danger. Relationship 101.
2. Noticing the other person’s investment in being right with a certain outcome in a conflict and when my own investment isn’t as important, so I can give in or at least compromise. Conflict Resolution 101.
3. Noticing when I have spent enough time feeling guilt and resentment in not succeeding in fixing an unfixable or uncontrollable situation, so I can concentrate on the fixable and controllable ones. Basic Problem-solving 101.
4. Noticing when I am wasting valuable time rehearsing conversations that I will never have in response to situations that will never occur. Time Management 101.
5. Noticing when I am spending too much money on expensive enjoyment, when there is so many free, ordinary things that come pre-packaged with free enjoyment price tags, right under my nose. Economics 101.
6. Noticing when I have failed to take the opportunity to compliment someone else for something good they have done, because I am too busy noticing what I am doing or not doing. Psychology 101.
7. Noticing when I am ruining an experience by failing to enjoy a certain outcome in something I am doing just because I expected something different to happen, that was of no greater consequence, just different. Expectations 101.
8. Noticing when I am prematurely satisfied that nothing positive can be seen in seemingly predominate negative person or situation. Optimism 101.
9. Noticing when it is the best time to either not say something in a conversation, when it can’t make the situation improve and will likely make things worse, or when to take a reasonable chance and say it. Communication 101.
10. Noticing when I am missing the opportunity for asking questions and learning something, by being to pre-occupied with making statements from my agenda. Listening 101.
11. Noticing when to stop trying to see both sides of an issue, when the only choice is which side to be on. Decision-making 101.
12. Noticing when I have the most important thing to say, say it, and move on. Life 101.
William Cottringer, Ph.D. is Executive Vice-President for Employee Relations for Puget Sound Security, Inc. in Bellevue, WA, Adjunct Professor of criminal justice at Northwest University, along with his hobbies in being a Sport Psychologist, Business Success Coach, Photographer and Writer living in the peaceful but invigorating mountains and rivers of North Bend. He is author of several business and self-development books, including, “You Can Have Your Cheese & Eat It Too” (Executive Excellence), “The Bow-Wow Secrets” (Wisdom Tree), “Do What Matters Most” and “P” Point Management” (Atlantic Book Publishers), “Reality Repair” (Global Vision Press), Reality Repair Rx (Authorsden), and “If Pictures Could Talk,” coming soon. Bill can be reached for comments or questions at (425) 454-5011 or ckuretdoc@comcast.net