LERNR.COM

The beginning of 2008 has been a strange year for me. Every year, every person I know sets New Years Resolutions. Within two weeks, no one is talking about them anymore because they have all failed. This goes for me as well.

This year, I wasn’t going to set have resolutions, I was setting for myself commitments. I thought, to me, I was much better at sticking with something when I made a commitment to something. “To resolve” something didn’t have in impact on my actions. And so far, it’s been true. I have changed or started quite a few actions. This is good right?

Well, sort of. Some of those actions include starting this blog, loosing weight/exercising more, increase my daily sales at work, and others. Really, on the surface I have been doing pretty well. I did start this blog at the beginning of January and have filled it with 27 posts and quite a few readers. I have been eating better and being mindful of moving more and have lost about 11 pounds. Where I really feel good is in sales – I have almost doubled my daily sales from what they were last year.

Now, how things look on the surface is different than what’s really going on. It may look like I’m sticking with my commitments, and I am, but I’m not REALLY committed to them. If I were really committed, I would have much more content in my blog, have lost about twice what I’ve lost, and wouldn’t have fears that the increase in sales income has more to do with tax season and less with gained skills.

When I set these commitments, that’s all I did. I told myself I was going to do these things. Only on one out of three did I tell myself to what degree I was going to do them. Only in my sales job did I tell myself I was going to go from $600000 in sales to $820000 and so far I’m on track. The other two, I just hopped in and started doing what I needed to do to check them off the list, but didn’t give myself goals and deadlines.

Also, on NPR this morning was a discussion on what they called “Prospect Theory”. This was an idea that we are more likely to keep our goals if there is loss associated with them. For instance, For me, looking at my weight loss as “Am I getting my $40 a month out of the weight loss program or am I just wasting $40 a month?”. Since looking at it like that, I feel a little more motivated (not quite wanting to go for a run but motivated still).

For blogging, I could look at it as my domain and hosting costs. I’m loosing an estimated $20 a month? I need to try to recoup that in revenue? Or is my blog more of a hobby?