Philosophical phriday: looking forward to 2025

I'm not a fan of new year's resolutions that tend (in my experience) to have limited impact and are often soon forgotten. My cynical self says the same thing applies to pledges, vows and other stated commitments, even agreements and contracts to some extent. They are more symbolic than actual control mechanisms (although I'm sure the lawyers would argue otherwise - on the clock, naturally). The focus is often on avoiding, preventing or stopping bad things, a negative emphasis although the actual language may be positive as in "I will lose weight" and "I will get fit". They can be a last resort, a sharp retrospective reminder of where we thought we were going when we are already heading off-course.

Elaborating on our aspirations for the year ahead takes a subtly different angle. It may involve dreaming, perhaps quite unrealistically ... but maybe with a little prompting that leads into thinking and talking about the practicalities, the steps needed to reach our ultimate goals - literally, the things we aspire to, or desire or even need.  The objectives, here, are positive, beneficial, valuable and attractive.  The steps are - or should be - realistic and achievable.

Bringing the two approaches together, both resolutions and aspirations benefit from clarity of objectives, ideally with measurable parameters or success criteria with specified targets. What is it, exactly, that is desired? How much of it? When?How? 

Elaborating still further, other aspects worth considering include:

  • Goals and anti-goals, desires and fears.
  • Resources and constraints. How much will it cost, and can we afford it?
  • Different perspectives, with the involvement of or implications for others.
  • Plans, milestones, critical paths even. What are the prerequisites for success, and how are we going to achieve/secure and assemble them?
  • Resilience and adaptability versus fragility and rigidity: how will we cope with changes, diversions, speed-bumps and accidents along the way?
  • Risks and opportunities, naturally. What are the critical factors, decisions, resources etc.? If things don't go to plan, what are the potential consequences (good or bad), and are we ready for that eventuality?

There's quite a lot to unpack here. Will you have the time and inclination to ponder on this before someone ask you about your new year's resolutions? Will you take the time to revisit this every so often in the year ahead, making adjustments and learning about the process? Talking of which, continual improvement could be a universal resolution, something generic to pull out of the hat when asked even if you haven't quite thought things through. "I'm not entirely sure what I'll be doing in 2025 but, whatever it is, I am determined to get better at it!".

Last year I resolved to get better at resolutions. Patently, I'm still working on that.