January, a start to a whole new year. People spend the beginning months focusing on their New Year’s Resolutions. They are determined to fulfill their new goals of making a change in their life. As I have previously said, I have never been a fan of the yearly resolutions and focus on 2, 5 and 10 year planning. Regardless of your method, a lot of people end up failing these new endeavors after several months and quickly go back to their old ways of being. Why is this?

Welcome to another edition of Unprocessed Thoughts.

For the beginning of the year I thought I’d share some theories I had about goals. Goals are often driven by motivation, which is a powerful thing when you have it. When you do not have it, trying to achieve something can be very challenging. Perhaps this is where a lot of people fall off the bandwagon in the New Year. During the holidays, we have a clearer mind and can foresee what we would like to achieve. Once we get back into the daily routines of our lives we quickly lose sight of this, returning to our day in and day out behavior, creating a mental tunnel vision.

Don’t lose your clarity.

When you are on holidays it is easy to have a clear sense of direction, let your mind be at ease and dream big. After the holidays, most people return to a live style that they are not wanting for themselves and become discouraged. It is a shame to see people drop out on their dreams. So what about those people that do achieve their yearly resolutions or long term goals? How do they maintain a sense of clarity when so many others do not?

Discipline and repetition are greater than motivation

There’s a number of inspirational quotes and articles that go into deeper theology about why motivation and drive are not always the key to achieving your goals, so I won’t get into that. What I will share is that people who are well disciplined in their task, will find a way to get it done. They will continually work towards their goal regardless if they “feel the inspiration” or if they are in a good mood. The reason they can do this is because they have trained themselves to remain in control of their wants and needs. They keep focused on long term goals opposed to giving into their immediate desires.

Disciplined people simply get the work done.

How do they do this? Disciplining yourself for any goal is a lot like a physical workout routine. You have a certain agenda for your workout and then you get it done. There’s not a lot else to it. People that do exercise on a regular basis do it regardless of their motivation to go to the gym. They have trained themselves to persist onwards. This methodology can be applied to any other medium as well. There is more to Nike’s famous slogan “Just Do It” than to sell sports equipment.

Want to be taken seriously? Take it seriously and do It.

To recap the original topic of this month’s Unprocessed Thoughts, if you want to achieve your New Year’s resolutions or to really be taken seriously with what you are doing, you need to do it. No one else is going to make it happen for you. Rain or shine.

Beer Note: Saigon Export

I tried this beer at a Vietnamese restaurant grabbing a vermicelli bowl. It is apparently the only authentic Vietnamese beer brewed in Vietnam. It is a much lighter beer than what I am used to and doesn’t have much taste in general. I’d give it 2/5 since it was enjoyable when chilled. Other than that it doesn’t have anything else going for it.

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2 Comments

  1. Marc Watson

    January 25, 2017 at 3:47 pm

    These blogs are the best: “Here’s some thoughts on goals. Here’s some discussion on deep writing thoughts. Here’s some fantastic life motivation!
    “…also, check out this beer!”

    Reply
    • Konn

      January 27, 2017 at 9:01 am

      Haha glad you enjoy them Marc! The Unprocessed Thoughts are very much my own internal rambles put into words (while cracking a new kind of beer).

      Reply

Konn Lavery

About Konn Lavery

Konn Lavery is a Canadian author whose work has been recognized by Edmonton’s top five bestseller charts and by reviewers such as Readers’ Favorite, and Literary Titan.

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