New Year's Resolutions; Attempts Made by the Undisciplined

I'm not a fan of New Year's Resolutions. Personally, I find them to be cheap, insincere, excuses.

If you want to change something about yourself, just do it. Stop waiting. Don't use the calendar as an excuse to put off something that you want to do. We are given 365 days a year to make decisions about who we are and who we want to be. If you're willing to completely ignore 364 of those days (364 opportunities to change), then do you honestly believe that you are going to change yourself on day one, simply because the year changes? I don't think so.

Donald Sensing talks about this particular issue as well in a post last month. I personally agree with him and think that his points are valid. I want to bring up some other thoughts as well though.

If you have goals, go after them. Don't wait. By establishing New Year's Resolutions, you are essentially making as many as 364 daily decisions NOT to make yourself better. Why then, after creating a habit of NOT making yourself better, do you expect that you are suddenly going to stick with a new habit and be a better you? It just doesn't make any sense to me.

Now, for some help in bettering yourself.

1. Set goals. Think BIG picture. What is the desired end-state for you? Where do you want to be? Now, with that in mind, when do you want to have this goal accomplished? Once you've answered those questions, you are ready to begin.

2. Set "micro-goals." Now that you've established the long-term goal, think through all the steps that it is going to take to get there and put dates to each of those micro goals, working backwards, each building on the previous, to accomplish your over-all desired goal.

3. Start today, not in 2016!

Here is an example.

Goal: I want to have my Master's degree in X. I want to graduate with the class of 2018. It will cost me $$$$$
Micro-goals:
1. I must enroll in grad classes in the fall of 2016. I must have saved $$$$.
2. I must submit my applications in the spring of 2016. I must have saved $$$.
3. I must take GRE/GMAT/other required measurement in the fall of 2015. I must have saved $$.
4. I must start studying for the GRE/GMAT/other required measurement in the summer of 2015. I must have saved $.
5. I must start saving for tuition today!

This is a pretty simple, rudimentary example. If you have larger goals (I want to be a Doctor, a Lawyer, an Astronaut), it will require more thought, probably more time, and plenty of dedication.

My point is this, if you don't like something about yourself, don't wait to change...change now.

Stop utilizing utilize! Try using utilize or even use.

I have really started to hate the word utilize. Well, that statement may be aimed at the wrong target. I don't actually have any issues with the word, in fact I think it's a great word, I hate the way people are over using it.

I've been sitting here trying to figure out why people utilize utilize so often and improperly. My grammar is far from perfect, but I think we can all try to speak and write more clearly and concisely. So far, I've really only come up with three reasons people utilize utilize improperly.

1. They want to sound smarter than you. I think this is probably the most common reason for the incorrect utilization of utilize. The syllable words are bigger than single syllable words (utilize vs. use), and therefore make you sound smarter (or like an idiot).

2. They want to speak better than you. I think some people actually have who problems that lead them to believe they are legitimately better than the rest of us (narcissism). I'll admit I do suffer from this issue sometimes, but please refrain from deliberately advertising your narcissism to the world.

3. They are too lazy to use a dictionary. This is probably pretty common as well. I don't know how often the average person picks up a dictionary before they use a new word, but its a practice that should be performed more often.

Believe it or not,  there are definitional differences between use and utilize. I'll let you look up the definitions, but I will share the way I understand it:

Use is used when something is used as it is intended.

Utilize is used when something is utilized in a way that it was never intended to be used.

Example: You use a hammer to drive a nail. You can not utilize a hammer to drive a nail.

You can utilize a rock to drive a nail.

There is some leeway when using use. There is no leeway when using utilize.