Terry Elliotts’ Blog

• David McCoy — A member of the Gartner Blog Network

  • "No big batch of New Year’s resolutions for me this January 1.  I’m breaking the habit.  Perhaps - at best - I have a 30% win ratio on my resolutions.  At the start of each new year, three of the roughly 10 resolutions made at the start of the previous year can be considered “fulfilled.”  That’s failing in most school systems.  30%… no, that’s not good at all.  I don’t like to fail.

    Why do 70% of my resolutions fail?  I believe it’s because my resolutions are bandages trying to repair a much bigger wound.  Consider the following resolution - one I have made way too many times:

    Health - I resolve to lose weight down to X pounds, exercise Y times per week, eat right (whatever that means), and generally take care of myself.

    That sounds like a passable resolution.  But, let me assure you, it will fail.  Here is the same resolution, recast using much more realistic language - language that shows the underlying crisis driving the resolution.

    Health - I resolve to reverse 30 years of neglect in 365 days.

    See? If my resolutions were worded in such clear and precise language, I would never make them and my win ratio would go to infinity (assuming I can divide by zero on my calculator).  No one is going to bet on a resolution that is so clearly impossible."

  Explains a lot, doesn’t it?

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