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Summary

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The tradition of linking resolutions to set periods in the calendar goes back to ancient times. The ancient Babylonians were among the first to make promises about the upcoming year during their 12-day festival of Akitu. Julius Caesar helped kick of traditions of new year resolutions in ancient Rome when he decreed that the year would start in January, a month named after the two faced god Janus. Later, John Wesley helped start traditions involving church serves convened on New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day where congregants would think about ways to improve themselves and their communities in the coming year.

December of 2019 not only marks the last month of this year, but it also marks the last month of this decade! It may be worth considering how one doesn’t even need to wait till the end of the year to make a resolution, but that resolutions can be linked to any amount of time on the calendar. One could make a new week resolution, a new month resolution, the familiar new year resolution, or event a new decade resolution.

As Bill Gates noted, people often overestimate what they can get done in a year, but underestimate what they can get done in 10 years. With a new decade on the horizon, this may an opportunity to do some thinking about the work you want to do in the coming 10 years, and how you will make an impact on the world through the work you’ll be doing!

Full Transcript

Do you know where the tradition of new year's resolutions comes from? It actually goes back a long, long time - about 4,000 years ago, to be exact. The ancient Babylonians made a big deal around their new year. But, for them, it wasn't in January. It was more in March when they planted their crops. They held a 12-day festival called Akitu where they either appointed a new king or affirmed their loyalty to their existing King. They also made pledges to repay debts or return items that they had borrowed from friends and neighbors. This is among the earliest traditions we know about that at least resembles a new year's resolution.

A few years later our friends the Romans did something a little bit similar. In 46 BC, Julius Caesar decided that, “You know what guys? We should start our year in January” and he named the month of January after Janus, the two face to God. Janus had one face looking forward and one face looking backward: a perfect symbol of reflection about what we've done in the past and what we're going to do in the future.

Then, more recently, in 1740 John Wesley (founder of the Methodist church) started what would be called evening “new covenant” services or “watch” services, which were held either on New Year's day or New Year's Eve. Congregations would come together and think about what they hoped to do in the year ahead.

So you may be asking, “why all this talk about new year's resolutions? We're not even close to the new year!”

But, of course, as you know here in about a month a lot of people are going to start talking about resolutions. They're going to start thinking about ways they can increase their impact they're making on the world through the work they're doing or improve themselves.

I just wanted to offer to you a couple of ideas about resolutions because they're big ideas, and maybe we can't wait till New Year’s Eve when everybody else is going to be talking about resolutions. We’ve got to talk about them now, so we've got time man!

This may be the last time in this decade that you can think about not a new year's resolution but a new month resolution. A lot of times people think in terms of just they have to make resolutions based on years, but you don't have to wait that long. You can make a new month resolution. Today, as I film this, is the first day of December. You can make a December resolution. What are you going to get done in the work you do this month? How are you going to improve your power to make impact this month? It doesn't have to be as much as you might do in a year.

If you want to think about what you could do this week, you can go ahead and do that. You can create a new week resolution, which is super powerful. Or, if you want to think in terms of a month, you can create a new month resolution, which is also super powerful!

In any event, this is about the time you want them to start thinking about your new year's resolution. Of course even more powerful than that - we're coming up on me on the end of 2019 as I film this - which means we're entering a new decade. You can come up with a new decade resolution.

Bill Gates once said that, “people often overestimate what they can get done in a year, but underestimate what they can get done in a decade.” So, this is your chance. What are you going to get done through the work you do in the next decade? What impact is your work going to have in the next decade? And if we take Bill’s advice, we should shoot high. Don't underestimate what you can get done in 10 years. 10 years is a long time. So what are you going to get done through your work in the next 10 years? I challenge you to pick something big. Overestimate what you can do and you might be right on the money. Worst case, if you overestimate what you can get done and you only get half of that done, that's still could be quite a bit if you aim high enough. This is the time to start thinking about this stuff. Not only what are you going to get done in the next week, what do you need done in the next month, but what are you going to get done in the next year? But most importantly, what do you even get done in the next 10 years through the work you do? Now's the time to start thinking about it. Planning out 10 years is going to take some time, at least a month. So start now! If you do, I think it'll help you win at work for at least the next 10 years.

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