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Why New Year’s Resolutions Suck (But Why You Should Make Them Anyway)

by Drew on December 28, 2009 in Learn with Humor

photo by biewoef

Every year, over 100 million Americans make a New Year’s Resolution; only 18% of those people will actually keep it. If less than 1/5th of the people that make a resolution actually keep them, why even bother coming up with a new goal to start working on the first of year? We’ll get to that, but first…

Why New Year’s Resolutions Suck

New Year’s Resolutions have a number of things working against them, but it comes down to three main reasons of Suck.

Reason of Suck #1 – Procrastination

The big problem with New Year’s Resolutions is that we wait until the “magical” date of the first of the year to start them. You might think in October, “you know, I should start exercising,” but then think, “oh, well I’ll just wait till the New Year and start off fresh.”

This is just a way of procrastinating. Why not start working on the new goal when you first start thinking about it? January 1st is just another day on the calendar, yet we wait for it to come to do things we could start doing today.

Reason of Suck #2 – Lack of Preparation

The second reason New Year’s Resolutions suck is that we push off even starting on our resolution till the first of the year. The problem is that if you want to actually succeed at your goal, you’ll need to do some planning. Research tips on your new goal, read about success stories of other people, find like-minded people that can keep you committed.

Waiting until the day you want to make a change to even create a plan on how to make the change is what lands you in the 82% of people who don’t make it.

Reason of Suck #3 – Intimidation/De-motivation

The final reason New Year’s Resolutions suck is that they are too intimidating. Generally, when we set a goal at the beginning of the year, it’s for the entire year. We assume that we can go from behaving one way (such as smoking) on one day, to then behaving another way (not smoking) the next. And we think we will behave the new way forever.

Thinking about making a change for the rest of your life is intimidating; it’s daunting and scary. Plus when we mess up, it becomes de-motivating (“I’ll never learn to eat the right number of fruits and vegetables every day.”) Instead, think in smaller chunks. First try to work on your resolution for just a week, or 30 days. Then link those weeks together and you’ll eventually get to that full year with the new behavior.

Why You Should Make Them Anyway

So if New Year’s Resolutions suck, why even make them? Because they’re better than nothing. They’re better than sitting around and accepting the status quo. If the change of the new year is what motivates you to do something, then take advantage of it and do it.

Because even if you don’t succeed at never hitting snooze again in your life, you’ll do better than if you never set the goal to begin with. And that’s why you make a New Year’s Resolution.

How to Improve Your Chances of Success

So now that you know some of the pitfalls of New Year’s Resolutions, but why you should make them anyway, you may want to get some help so you can be one of the successful ones. For some articles with helpful tips, check out:

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5 Productivity Tips from the Stand-Up Comedy World

by Drew on May 12, 2009 in Learn with Humor

photo by Carooo

Unlike the corporate world, the realm of stand-up comedy is less structured and requires more personal discipline to be productive. There is no boss to assign you something to do, and there’s no one looking over your shoulder making sure you do your work. And while some comedians are blessed with the ability to just “be funny,” many others spend years perfecting both their craft and their work habits–Jerry Seinfeld being a perfect example.

While you may never need to step on a stage to make a room full of strangers laugh, you do need to get things done. Here are 5 tips from the stand-up comedy world to make you more productive.

1. Write Everything Down

“Sometimes in the middle of the night, I think of something that’s funny, then I go get a pen and I write it down. Or if the pen’s too far away, I have to convince myself that what I thought of ain’t funny.” – Mitch Hedburg

Stand-up comedians are notorious for having jokes written down on napkins, envelopes, or backs of receipts. It’s not because comedians hate notebooks or lined paper, but because comedians know that inspiration can strike at any time. It’s so easy to get distracted by something else and lose that idea forever, unless we write it down.

The same is true for every type of work–great ideas or new items to add to your task list can pop in your mind at any time. Getting these ideas off your mind and into your note capturing device ensures it won’t be forgotten and frees you to think about other things. This is one the keys to David Allen’s Getting Things Done system (he calls it the “Collection Habit”).

You can save yourself the time from searching for something to write on by always carrying a note-taking device such as a small pen and pad, a voice recorder, or a phone you can takes on. Most comedians have archives of notepads full of ideas–some that make them famous (such as George Carlin’s 7 Words you can’t say on TV) and others that don’t quite make it. But the key is they have them recorded to be reviewed and expanded or discarded later.

2. Break Projects into Smaller Tasks

As a nationally touring comedian, you’ll have anywhere between 45 minutes to 2 hours worth of material. But no comedian started out writing a 2-hour show.

When you first get started in stand-up, you are generally performing 5-minutes at a time. As you improve and get bigger and bigger shows, you naturally build up to having a 45-minute show.

Whenever we start a new project, such as writing a book or implementing a new system at work, the end goal can be intimidating. But if you break your project into “5-minute sets” or smaller tasks, the project becomes more manageable. Then, as you complete each task, you’ll be closer and closer to your 45-minute set.

3. Do Your Time

If you ask any professional comedian what the key to success is, they’ll tell you it’s getting on stage as often as possible. The idea is simple–the more you perform, the more you’ll work on your material, hone your craft, and improve your performance. But there’s a tendency among comedians to spend most of their time watching or reading about how to become better.

And while this certainly is advisable when first starting out, it often becomes an excuse for not doing the work, a cleverly disguised form of procrastination. It’s also the least effective way of learning or improving.

“Learning music by reading about it is like making love by mail.” – Luciano Pavarotti

Watching other comedians perform will help, but it doesn’t replace actually getting on stage. The same is true for any project. That doesn’t mean working long hours toiling away, but it does mean doing something. If you’re remodeling your kitchen, you can find inspiration by looking through renovation magazines, but you won’t be any closer to your goal until you actually take action.

Get on stage, do your time, and get stuff done.

4. Get Feedback

Comedians live and die by the laughter and responses they evoke from the audience. If a joke consistently elicits a huge guffaw from the audience, a comedian knows it works and will continue to do it and write more jokes like it. If the joke results in silence, it’s clear something needs to change.

This immediate feedback is invaluable as a performer, and in any project. Stopping to ask for ways to improve a presentation or what went well in a particular meeting can guide you in finding what works and what doesn’t. Then you can start working on the right things–working smarter and not harder.

One key thing to note is that feedback doesn’t just have to come from other people. Comedians record their performances all the time so they can go back to evaluate a performance. Checking in with yourself periodically or tracking your daily progress can help you find what it is that makes you productive.

5. Plan to Improvise

Most comedians make a set-list before every show of all the jokes they are going to tell–essentially a task list for the stage. This list is crucial to being succinct and clear, and is the equivalent to having a well-oiled GTD system for to do items.

The problem is that things don’t always go according to plan, and the skillful comedian is able to improvise when necessary or when an opportunity arises. An unusual answer to a normal question or a beligerant heckler can be great launching points for a comedian to improvise a hilarious bit on the spot.

In the real world the same is equally true. While we may have a great 5-year plan of what we are going to do, sometimes it’s necessary to sieze an opportunity and go off script. This mentality and comfort in improvising when need be can lead to life changing events and improved productivity in a direction you never imagined.

“I think luck is the sense to recognize an opportunity and the ability to take advantage of it. The man who can smile at his breaks and grab his chances, gets on.” – Samuel Goldwyn

Standing Up for Productivity

Stand-up comedy may not be rocket science or even project management, but the craft calls for and creates a valuable set of skills. These same skills, when applied to work and personal goals and challenges, can improve productivity and help you get things done. So take a page from the comedy world and start using these tips today–turn this information in to knowledge. After all,

“There’s a difference between information and knowledge. It’s the difference between Christy Turlington’s phone number and Christy Turlington.” – PJ O’Rourke

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Why Stress Isn’t a Bad Thing

by Drew on May 5, 2009 in Learn with Humor

Photo by ayeyah

I recently posted an article called Creating a Sense of Urgency that talked about how to be more productive by creating a sense of urgency for yourself to get things done.

In the comments, someone asked why I was encouraging more stress, and what I meant by saying “stress isn’t always a bad thing.” This is what I meant:

The Stress of Working Out

Exercise and working out is the practice of stressing your muscles and body in the attempt to make them stronger.

While you’ll (hopefully) never have to run 26-miles consecutive miles, half a million people run a marathon every year for the purpose of training their body (and accomplishing an amazing feat). And while you can push too hard to the point of injury or death, by applying the right amount of stress, you can become stronger and healthier.

The Stress of Working

Just as stress is what makes our bodies stronger, the same is true for work–it’s just a different type of stress and a different skill-set that we’re making stronger. Whereas exercise stress strengthens our muscles and capacity to lift weights or run, work stress strengthens our brain and capacity to get things done.

But just like exercise, overdoing it with work stress can have just as bad of side effects. Too much stress, or chronic stress, can result in memory problems, lead to depression, or even cause chest pain–certainly not positives.

The Right Amount of Stress

For both exercise and work-related stress, the key to growth and development is in applying the right amount of stress. What’s the right amount? 92.6 minute of stress per day… I’m kidding.

The right amount of stress can’t be measured exactly and is different for every person. And while there isn’t an exact science, there are a few guidelines to managing stress:

Push Yourself
Almost all of the benefits of exercise come at the end of the workout, when you are pushing yourself past what you’ve accomplished before. The same is true for stress–you will grow your capacity to do work by pushing yourself to work better and more efficiently than you have in the past.
Rest and Recuperate
The most important time for muscle growth is the recuperation period. While it’s important to stress your muscles, it’s even more important to give them ample time to rebuild and get stronger. The same is true for work–if you are constantly stressed-out, you don’t give your body and mind the time to recuperate and grow stronger–instead it has the opposite effect.
Provide Fuel
Eating right is crucial to seeing gains (or fat loss) in your workouts. While you will see some positive health effects simply from working out, when you combine it with a healthy diet, you really see the benefits. Work is the same way, but fuel here isn’t just a healthy diet: it’s exercising, relaxing, taking strategic breaks, and having a strong sense of purpose. They will all help to fuel you through your work.

Manage Stress for Improvement

Stress isn’t a bad thing. In fact, it’s absolutely necessary to becoming more efficient, productive, and effective. The key is managing stress in such a way that it helps you grow and improve, but doesn’t impact your work, life, or health negatively.

To do this, like with exercise, you want to systematically increase your capacity to deal with stress. Our body and mind grow through increased stress, not continual stress–that means to push ourselves further, but to still take breaks, to re-charge, and to provide the proper fuel.

Why Stress Isn’t a Bad Thing

So if we hope to improve our productivity and ability to work over time, stress is a must to push us past our current ability–and that’s why stress isn’t a bad thing.

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Life Lessons Learned from Watchmen

by Drew on March 8, 2009 in What I Learned From

With the release of Watchmen this weekend comes a lot of hype and anticipation for the graphic novel turned movie. The graphic novel, originally published as a series in 1986-87, has long been heralded as the best novel of its kind. Time Magazine even listed it as one of the 100 Best Novels.

I recently read the book and must admit that there is a reason there was so much hype around this story of “superhero” characters. Watchmen changed a genre and turned superhero comics into stories of real-life with real life lessons.

Storytelling has long been an effective means to affect people in profound ways, from the days of Homer (the Greek poet), to the days of Homer (the Simpson). Watchmen is no different of a story, with compelling life lessons in the story, hidden (or maybe not-so-much) in between the gritty, dark journey of the characters.

Before going on, I do want mention a few things. First, Watchmen isn’t a kid’s comic and therefore some of the themes and images aren’t exactly G-rated. With that in mind, I’ve tried to keep this post mostly suitable for work (MSFW), and all of the life lessons that I saw were positive–it’s just the context from which they came may not be seen that way.

Second, I cover the whole gamut of the story, so you can probably piece together the story through the lessons. If you haven’t read the book or seen the movie, continue reading at your own risk (aka this is a “possible spoiler alert”).

Life Lessons Learned from Watchmen:

“Don’t Tell Me They Didn’t Have a Choice.”

Chapter 1, Page 1

Rorschach’s first journal entry states it plainly: everyone has a choice. Whether it’s to be involved in a nuclear arms race, or to be stuck in a dead-end job, people make a choice to be where they are.

While many people wait around for something to happen, the people who find success are those that decide they will go out and get it. As Eisenhower said, “The history of free men is never written by chance but by choice–their choice.”

“Gettin’ old, you get a different perspective.”

Chapter 2, Page 2

While the particular incident Sally Jupiter is referring to is quite extreme, her point-of-view is still valid and one that many people don’t realize until they get older. Whatever your age is, think back 10 years ago and think about what you thought was important at that time. Is it still important? If you were in high school 10 years ago, was it really important what clothes you were wearing or even whether it mattered that you got a 95% instead of a 97% (yes I got upset about that).

In the long run, when lying on your death-bed, no one wishes they would have spent more time at work or even made more money, they wish they would have enjoyed life more and spent time with their friends and family. Why wait until death to wish that? Start doing it now.

“Nothing is hopeless.”

Chapter 2, Page 25

As long as there is life, nothing is hopeless. Certainly there are times we all reach rock-bottom, where things seem insurmountable, but that’s the amazing thing about the human spirit. Even when we’re down at the bottom, there is always hope. We can make changes, we can take the action necessary to move in the right direction.

Just look to a number of inspirational stories such as the “Miracle on the Hudson” where Pilot Chesley B. “Sully” Sullenberger III safely landed a plane on the Hudson River, saving all 155 passengers. Look at the “comeback” stories of high-profile celebrities like Mickey Rourke. Or even look at leaders such as Martin Luther King, Jr. He must have known that he wasn’t going to end racism by himself, but he still dreamed, and he still took action to make it a reality.

“I feel as if I’ve been here all the time.”

Chapter 4, Page 13

Though Doctor Manhattan is also referencing his metaphysical sense of time, his view on having “always been here” is an accurate one. Janey Slater suggesting that “he’s arrived” because he now has fame and notoriety is inaccurate. People hold certain accomplishments up on a pedestal thinking they will only be successful when they reach that step, but success is different for every person.

Becoming CEO of a company doesn’t mean you are more successful than a stay-at-home Mom that has raised 3 children–the measures of success are different. The key is to define your vision of success and work to achieve it. And specifically on the concept of fame, recall that Ralph Waldo Emerson observed, “Fame is proof that people are gullible.”

“Things have their shape in time, not space alone.”

Chapter 4, Page 24

George Bernard Shaw said, “You see things and say ‘Why?’ But I dream things that never were and say ‘Why not?’” Doctor Manhattan’s observes that what is now just a block of stone can one day be the Statue of David.

The same is true for people. Every person has the opportunity to do something unique, something powerful. And while it may not be that way right now, hard work and perseverance can make that change; it’s hidden underneath the stone, just waiting to be chiseled into the next masterpiece.

“Even the word ‘gone’ would be gone.”

Chapter 5, Page 12

Bernard’s first thoughts when thinking of a disaster turn to the obvious of people, cars, etc. But then he has a realization that bigger things, like the construct of language and that of societal interaction would be gone as well, and that’s the bigger disaster. This is much the same as how many people view life–they think of the material things and material girls. But rarely do we step back and appreciate something as simple as social interaction–friends, family, community, and even enemies.

Similar to Sally’s observation above, what’s going to be more important to you as you get older, and therefore, what is more important for you to focus on now?

“My Perspective.”

Chapter 8, Page 14

Whenever Rorschach speaks, it is short and to the point. Here, in the face of what seems to be an impossible situation, he has two things on his side: perspective and confidence. And these two things are often what will allow people to succeed in the face of adversity.

Based on your experiences, you have a unique view of every situation, and that perspective is what makes you different from everyone else out there. Whether it’s as a writer, actor, project manager, or barista, your perspective will be different. Combine that with having confidence in yourself and your abilities, and just as Charles F. Kettering said of the Wright Brothers, you can fly “right threw the smoke screen of impossibility.”

“You could say that about anybody in the world.”

Chapter 9, Page 27

The thermodynamic miracle referenced by Laurie Jupiter is that of birth, and Doctor Manhattan has realized that the odds required for people to get together and have this child or that child is a miracle; a miracle that is true of anybody in the world.

Sometimes it’s easy to lose sight of the miracle of life, and as cheesy as it sounds, every person does have the opportunity to make their own unique impact on the world–the question is what will yours be?

“Offices below, headstones marking daily graves of thousands.”

Chapter 10, Page 22

In Rorschach’s final journal entry, he shares again a different perspective (both literally and figuratively). Literally, up above the city, the skyscrapers and buildings do look something like tombstones in a cemetery. Figuratively, living only to work may not be physical death, but is it really living? Is working 80-hour weeks, neglecting friends and family or unique life experiences, really the Hokie Pokie (that’s what it’s all about)?

Burg’s Philosophy holds true for the time you spend at work, as well as in life: “It’s not the time you put in, but what you put in the time.”

“No time like the present.”

Chapter 11, Page 4

Perhaps, like Ozymandias, you have a plan or idea of something that you want to do, but have been waiting for the “perfect” time to do it. Well the perfect time was yesterday, so you might as well do it today.

People will find all kinds of reasons to procrastinate (“the timing’s not right,” “the weather is gloomy,” “‘The Hills’ is on”), but you only need that one good reason to do it, that one reason that starts you on your new plan or idea, and that reason is: there is no time like the present. After all, it is called the ‘present’–it’s a gift for us to use. And it may not turn out perfect, or you may not know what will happen, but don’t forget…

“The excitement of not knowing.”

Chapter 12, Page 7

One of the scariest things about trying something new–acting on a plan or idea you had, or moving in a different direction–is the uncertainty of what will happen. But that’s also part of the excitement.

If you had the option to see the future, would you want to be able to? As Doctor Manhattan discovered, it takes the fun and surprise out of living. It’s like knowing the end of Sixth Sense, The Usual Suspects or Watchmen before even seeing the movie–sure you can watch the movies and still be entertained, but you won’t get that same sense of enjoyment and satisfaction when the twist is revealed.

“Nothing ever ends.”

Chapter 12, Page 27

I know plenty of people that believe if they just get a certain job, or make a certain amount of money, or even buy a certain gadget, that they’ll be happy, that everything will be perfect. But “in the end,” nothing ever ends. Even if you get that job, life continues on after. You’ll have new adventures and new challenges, but not everything will perfect. But who would want it to be? Our failures lead to successes, and we appreciate them more.

Life is not just about the awards, statuses, or objects we obtain, but the journey we took to obtain them–we will spend much more of our time on the journey than on accepting the awards. So as you work toward your goals, hopes, or dreams, make sure the path you take is one you enjoy. Thomas A. Edison knew this well: “I never did a day’s work in my life. It was all fun.”

Source

Watchmen is a great story with compelling characters–there’s a reason it’s one of the top 100 novels. If you’re interested in reading the book (which you should), you can pick it up at Amazon.com.

Watchmen. Moore, Alan and Dave Gibbons. New York, NY: DC Comics, 1986, 1987.

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