Forget About New Year’s Resolutions : Instead Write Your Best Story 9


Many people write resolutions for the New Year.

When I am with my family, I will spend less time on my cell. I will get to work earlier, make this amount of money, go to the gym 3 times a week and get more fit.

It’s a story you hear a lot: people write goals and then don’t think about them again for another year.

In the world of storytelling we call that a bad story, a story that doesn’t work.

It’s 2014, and it’s time for something different. Something simpler. Something that actually works.

Write a story. A good story. The story of who you want to be.

New Years’ stories have power that New Years’ resolutions can only dream about.

Stories inspire you, they take you where you want to go and lead you to who you want to be.

Great stories do the work for you, so you can sit back and watch yourself jump onto the path of having what you want.

You can write stories about anything: work, sports, relationships, weight, sleep, money…The list is endless.

Go ahead. Right now: write the story of you.

The best version of you.

Write about what makes you good on those days when you are great.

Write about your best moments. Who you are at your best?

On the days when you hit the ball out of the park what are you thinking, feeling, believing, saying and doing?

Kelsey, an elite Division 1 middle distance runner knows that on her best day, she is combo of eager and nervous, but she is very calm at the start line. She starts smoothly and accelerates rapidly into the middle part of her race. On her best days, she turns the pain into her running partner.

Maybe, on your best day, you start the day with a walk around the block, you take lots of notes during a call, you listen deeply, you tune into the emotion of the market, you check your PNL every minute or never look at it, you use a particular pen or sit a certain way, you have a view of winning and losing on those days that is you at your best.

This is you at your best.

On the court, at my best, I am totally on the ball off my opponent’s racket. I believe there is no ball I cannot get to. I am long and slow in my serve motion. I play within myself and enjoy it when it is good and love it when it’s tough. I know my biggest pressure moments are the sweetest moments. I am not judging myself for missing some easy ones. I am accepting of my inability to be perfect.

How do I know this? I wrote a story about who I was on my best days.

How did Kelsey know who she was on a good racing day? She wrote her story about who she was on her best days.

Who are you on your best days? Think of one fantastic day, or one fantastic moment in a day, and write it down.

What were you doing, thinking, feeling, saying?

This is your personal success story. And it will help you get what you want.

Keep your best story in front of you. Stay alert all day, every day, for opportunities to be this story.

You may find that is all you need to do.

New Year’s Resolutions? No, I don’t think so. They don’t last.

Take some time this week, before you get caught up in your routine, to find your story.

The story of you at your best. Your personal manifesto.

And then: sit back and watch your story bring you to places you might never have believed possible.

Now is the time to live the best story of your life.


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9 thoughts on “Forget About New Year’s Resolutions : Instead Write Your Best Story

  • Winder Bill

    Positive thinking: A mild suggestion on this article – rather than a stop unhelpful (negative?) New Year’s resolutions and instead (positive) write your own story, how about enhancing New Year’s resolutions with write your own story.
    Good luck and may we both earn good results in all aspects of our lives for 2014.
    Winder

  • Jahn Levin

    Bob, I found this post to be unforgettably inspiring. Great insight. A New Year’s Resolution doesn’t capture the mindset that frames our most successful days, and this mindset can engage us, focus us and help lift us up – in ways a resolution can’t. Keep up the good work, the keen insights and your great communication skills.

  • Dale Karp

    What a wonderful idea! It’s so important to remember who we are at our best and what occurred to make us to feel that way. Creating a good story. Your wisdom and insight are very inspiring. I love to read your blogs!

    Happy and Healthy 2014!

  • Lori DiPaolo

    Hi Bob! I have made numerous New Year resolutions that I hate to admit most of them I never follow up on or if I did it was very short lived or a very lame attempt! This year as Mike and I celebrated ringing in the New Year on the Vegas strip I looked around at the 100’s of people around me and wondered what kind of resolutions they would make and immediately thought to myself why bother…we won’t keep them so why make them? But yesterday as we traveled back home I found myself constantly thinking about what I want to get out of the new year and leave behind in 2013. I day dreamed about what I want in 2014…to be nicer, healthier, smarter with my money, etc. Reading your blog just now really struck a cord with me and the timing couldn’t be better! I’m excited I won’t break any resolutions this year! I’m going to write my story because I do want 2014 to be different! Mwhaaa!

  • zelkoauto@aol.comzeljko maracic

    Bob,thank You for all you help and paciente .now i lowe tennis…
    great freandship.
    Hapy and healty New Year,to you and family!