Comments on: New year’s resolutions? – Not me!

By: bigato

bigato — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 21:57:17 +0000

“don’t understand anniversaries and birthdays as a cause for celebration”

i see almost no reason to celebrate anytime. maybe because our personalities tend to focus on the bad side of things? Or are the others too optimists?

I love crisis. Because when everything is falling down, everybody is worried and don’t know what to do, I feel good because I prepared myself. The rest of the time, I’m just the sad person that only sees the bad side of things. I wish nature was less patient.

By: Steve @ brip blap

Steve @ brip blap — Sat, 03 Jan 2009 22:52:00 +0000

I agree that making a resolution simply because of a calendar date is an arbitrary cultural custom. I don’t do it either – and intentionally didn’t blog anything like that, either. At the same time, I understand anniversaries and birthdays and whatnot – there needs to be a set date for “celebrating” the passage of time, so why not have a similar practice for resolutions?

Personally, if I feel the need for a resolution (read more; lose weight; etc.) then I start it when it occurs to me and not when Jan. 1 arrives. Goal setting (timing, starting point) is a fluid action, although the goal itself should be firm.

By: Matt

Matt — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 12:21:20 +0000

Every culture (as far as I know) has rituals of celebration. It’s not so important when the date is or why the reasons, what’s important is that people need to have some periods of the year to take a small hiatus from your daily routine.

I do goal setting quarterly (for the next 6 months) and I’ve finally got a system that I’m happy with. I don’t believe there is any use setting goals more than 6 months out as too many things change and it will seem so far away that it won’t be motivating.

By: Jacob

Jacob — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:50:06 +0000

@GM – It depends. Goals are useful if the problem is convergent which means that there is a solution and it can be reached. For instance, industrial production goals are convergent. All the components are known and it is just a matter of focusing on putting them together.

Goals are not useful if the problem is divergent. Divergent problems contain unknown components and therefore it is not possible to specify a destination. Taking a guess at some unknown destination therefore leads to optimizing for the wrong thing.

Life in general is a a divergent problem. I think investing is a divergent problem as well. All one can do is to do the right thing at all times. If the right thing is a good thing, the rewards will follow whatever “goals” they may correspond to.

I therefore see goal setting as kind of putting the cart in front of the donkey in most cases. You can use goal setting to improve something you are already good at, but setting goals to change fundamentally … I think that will almost always fail.

By: Get Money

Get Money — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 21:05:00 +0000

to me, it’s a good chance to reflect over the previous year and to set goals and make plans for the next year

are you a fan of goal setting Jacob or not so much? I’d be keen to see some of your goals if you’re willing and able to share them with us