Resolve to Limit Yourself!

With a new year, many people make resolutions to think, act and do better in the next twelve months. I have done this in the past… but like most people, I find that by mid-February my “To Do” list has become vacated. It is difficult to stay focused on the goals that I set in a hurry back in January.

Instead of listing what I can do, I am starting to list what I won’t or can’t do. I think it will help accomplish more if you first believe in your limitations. When I was a child I thought I could do anything. But as I have grown older I know my limitations and what can and can’t be done. Clint Eastwood said in the movie Magnum Force,

“A man’s got to know his limitations.”

Most of my limitations aren’t limited to me alone. There are certain habits and policies that you can't continue practicing if you want to... well, continue.  Life and experience have taught me there are just some things I just can’t do. I wish someone had told me some of them early on… but I probably would have had to go out and learn them through mistakes. Like my great-grandmother said, “Bought wisdom is more valuable than taught wisdom.”

What are you going to STOP doing in 2014?  What have you been doing that isn't producing the results it once did?  What is your "dinosaur?"  (Definition: Dinosaur, something that is dead and extinct but you have never buried.).

Today, decide what you will cease before adding something new to your "To Do" list.