You know the saying, “hindsight is 20/20”? Why not “foresight is 20/20”? I mean, of course we all can look back and say “Yes, I can clearly see that it happened, well.. because it happened!” and then reflect upon it. But why not use foresight or the use of a Compelling Vision in order to make sense of where we want to take our lives, reflect, measure and see what our progress is? That’s where to goals upwards to 20 years comes in with timelines attached.

So back to the title of this blog, what’s this talk about New Year’s Resolutions versus Dedications? What does Resolution mean exactly? What about Dedication? The definitions of both words according to Dictionary.com are:

Resolution

1. a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group
2. a resolve or determination: to make a firm resolution to do something.
3. the act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.
4. the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.

Dedication.

1. complete and wholehearted fidelity
2. a ceremony in which something (as a building) is dedicated to some goal or purpose
3. a message that makes a pledge [syn: commitment]
4. a short message (as in a book or musical work or on a photograph) dedicating it to someone or something
5. the act of binding yourself (intellectually or emotionally) to a course of action; “his long commitment to public service”; “they felt no loyalty to a losing team”

From the two definitions you just read, which feels more powerful? Which definition would you attach yourself to if you were to make a New Year’s Resolution versus a New Year’s Dedication will ultimately lead you to following through reaching your resolution? The resolution is more so being aware of a problem that you want to “resolve” and figuring out a course of action that you would embark upon, and having a mental state of “firmness of purpose”. But nowhere does it say anything about holding yourself accountable or “binding yourself both intellectually and emotionally to a course of action”. So when you involve and commit yourself to a Dedication on different dimensions and relate it to your own life and how it will benefit you, with enough reasons you can find a way to do justice to your Dedication.

So those were my thoughts with respect to using a Compelling Vision to where we want to go. So on to my New Year’s Dedications!

• Complete my improv training at The Second City and get into their prestigious Conservatory Program.
• Finish a full-marathon
• Sculpt my body just like Bruce Lee’s
• Wipe out my credit card debt and start on my OSAP debt
• Get a job in my field and get into the CMA Accelerated Program in order to fill in the gaps of Accounting knowledge that I haven’t retained through years.
• Give Marvel Comics a chance (I’m a DC comics fan
• See my eligibility for enrolling in a part-time degree in Sociology at UofT
• Read at least 30 more books on self-actualization

Keep in mind that each and every one of these Dedications is something that I’m truly passionate about. From my understanding with past changes to my life, you MUST be passionate in order to keep on going at whatever it is you’ve dedicated yourself to and never have failure be an excuse to not follow through.

If you start using any of these ideas and concepts, you’re well on your way when you JUST DO IT! So this year, instead of making a New Year’s Resolution, make a New Year’s DEDICATION.

Here I’ll blog my journey of self-awareness, discovery, where I’ll be using myself as a guinea pig to measure the effectiveness of my program. I will be blogging daily to measure my progress and perhaps some of you nay-sayers may be inspired and check it out yourself. I will be posting more information as to how I got to the point where I decided to take on this Tony Robbins Personal Power II month-long challenged in a post later on today. Until then, enjoy the pictures

- Will