New Years Resolutions that make a difference

Today is the day — Jan 1st 2022, what a magical date. Another chance for everyone to turn it all around, to reset the past year and follow through on all our dreams, ambitions and goals that we have put off for so long due to seemingly more important stuff going on. Its true — life is what happens while you make other plans.

I live in a placid little village in the center of Austria/Europe. Its particular mild today for the season — the sun is shining bright and from my home office I can watch the little igloo I’ve built together with my kids melting down and vanishing.

31st of December has always been a very special day for me — I try to reflect on the past year, check off goals I’ve reached from my list and collect insights on my missed targets. I’ve been obsessed with self improvement and self measurement for a while now — maybe its my age or stage in life or simply today’s Zeitgeist.

As Peter Drucker once said — ‘What gets measured, gets improved’. I can relate to that but have to admit that I’ve still not found the right balance between micro managing all sorts of data points and keeping a birds-eye view on my progress.

Life has been good to me so far — I was anything but an ideal student and it took right up to my mid 30s for me to get my act together and become a responsible adult, but I tried to compensate for those ‘lost’ years with dedication. Together with a good portion of luck everything turned out ok so far and measuring a good life based on 50s standards one might consider me to be right on track — I’ve 2 kids, I am married, I own a house at the country side and I earn a good living. Overall I would describe myself as a procrastinator with good intentions and a solid amount of luck.

2021 has been challenging for so many people — we have a pandemic going on limiting our social life tremendously for 2 years now, reinforcing social unrest due to financial tension and inequality all over the world. Constant overflow of misinformation and a media focusing on sensation and disaster to grab our attention paints a picture of a highly uncertain and almost apocalyptic future.

Zooming out a little bit and turning off those distractions for a while can be very useful to get a more objective view on life — yes mankind is facing plenty of challenges that we can not ignore but have to solve — climate change, inequality, disease, political conflicts.

But I have great faith into humanity to solve those challenges and I look into the future with great excitement for all that is coming. Imagine a new and fair financial system based on crypto currencies that leads to more equality and offers banking to the poorest, a universal healthcare and basic income guaranteeing a living for everyone and opening up the possibility to pursue your passion which in turn will accelerate social responsibility and innovation.

Little changes can lead to great things happening which is why I want to share with you a list of new years resolutions for 2022 that I believe can improve your life and make the world a better place to live on. I don’t claim this list to be complete, but rather a framework or compass customizable for everyone individual needs and situation, so if you can come up with suggestions for changes or additions, pls let me know in the comments.

(1) Be kind to everyone

Globalization and social media give the impression that we can connect with every person in the world simply by a mouse click — we like posts of others and measure our social status via likes received. There are 1000s of contacts in our friends list but still we feel lonely and worthless. The truth is, your social media contacts are not your friends — real friends and family are precious and rare and we have to make sure that we foster and maintain them properly.

What is the easiest way to make a friend? Be kind to everyone you meet — it might just be a one-time contact but it also might turn out to be your soul mate, you never know. A kind word, a smile or genuine greeting can go a long way. Just imagine a stranger is looking at you in the streets, making you a compliment for no reason — how would you feel? It would immediately but a smile on my face and increase my mood.

And if you meet a grumpy or angry person, just try to put yourself in his/her shoes — maybe he/she is currently in a difficult personal situation? Be kind and friendly and you might make a friend for life.

You are arguing with someone over a topic you are 100% certain to be right? Well, you don’t have to be right all the time — sometimes its better to listen and accept other opinions even if you don’t support them personally.

What Darwin implied with the title of his master piece ‘survival of the fittest’ is not that only the strongest will strive — the evolutionary success of social beings like us humans is closely related to relationships and collaboration — a concept that does only work if we behave in the confines of a social contract accepted by the majority.

(2) Spend 1 hour in nature every day

We spend several hours a day sitting in front of a screen during work only to get up after 10 hours of grinding to move over to the couch staring at a slightly bigger screen looking for some distraction. One does not have to be a genius to derive the conclusion that such a lifestyle might not be particular beneficial for our health and well-being.

The cure is right in front of us — get your butt up and start moving! Be honest — while it might cost a lot of willpower to put on your shoes and start running, did you ever feel bad after coming home from a run?

Depending on your geographical circumstances it might be challenging to explore the woods or hike a mountain but there is always a possibility to do some sort of physical exercise — and I guarantee that you will get an instant reward afterwards.

For me sport has a variety of positive aspects — it a kind of meditation, allowing me to free up my cluttered mind and just let it wonder for a while, its also time I can use for high concentration on a specific topic, finding a solution that was buried under distractions for hours, its a chance to spend time with friends or to make new ones, it a chance to form teams and networks for life, its a proof of progress and personal development and finally a way to teach yourself gratitude for nature.

(3) Tidy up

I remember my years at university — first time living on my own in an apartment in Vienna completely self-responsible for getting by. Besides exploring the world and soaking up knowledge this included such ordinary tasks like buying groceries, cooking, doing the dishes and doing the laundry. Those simple tasks back then turned out to drain the majority of my willpower and I constantly had to budget and prioritize between studying and household chores — a choice that always came with a significant downside.

Meanwhile I came to a (for me) groundbreaking conclusion — the little things matter. Making you bed in the morning just takes a few minutes — executing on it gives you a feeling of achievement to start off your day successfully, and if your day does not turn out the way you expected it you still come home to a made bed.

What is more those little chores done continuously every day let you build a muscle to also execute on the big task that you are facing at work.

(4) Read a book every week

The education sector is on the move — traditional education concepts are outdated and replaced by new online education systems fueled by digital disruption. Assuming you are willing to spend the required amount of time and money, you can make a masters degree in any field at any time online without the need of being onsite. Personally I am not convinced that a degree per-se is relevant and in my career I never required proof of a certain degree to move up the ladder.

What is fascinating to me is, that the internet makes it so easy for everyone to access and consume information even on low budgets. Learning something new every day is mandatory to stay relevant in such a fast-paced world and an opportunity for everyone to create a career independent of social status and wealth — free access to information therefore becomes a great equalizer.

I try to constantly expand my horizon by reading one book per week — depending on the book this boils down to roughly 25 pages a day, a task that is absolutely doable even with a tight schedule.

Some favorites of my reading list I can highly recommend:

The Black Swan — by Nassim Taleb

Life is what you make it — by Peter Buffet

Sapiens — a brief history of mankind — by Yuval Noah Harari

12 Rules for Life — by Jordan B. Peterson

(5) Take care of your financial future

School teaches us a lot of useful stuff — we learn how to write and read, how to sum up numbers and what a human cell is composed off. However, what we do not learn is how to manage our financial future, which leads to the fact that university graduates are able to solve complex mathematical problems, but do not understand the value of dollar-cost-averaging and investing. While in the 80s of the previous century a single-earning household could afford building a house, today even double-earning households with degrees are struggling to make ends meat.

If you plan to live a decent life in retirement don’t bank on your government but take matters in your own hand — (1) track your expenses, (2) pay off high-yield debt asap, (3) Invest at least 20% of your income per month, (4) invest into yourself to increase your value and therefore your earning potential