Prepare to Execute
Here’s a little New Year’s trivia before jumping into our next part. Who do scholars credit with being the first to adopt the tradition of making annual resolutions?
A.) Romans
B.) Babylonians
C.) Assyrians
If you said the Romans, you are…wrong. The correct answer is the Babylonians, an ancient culture that existed in Mesopotamia from 1894 BC to 539 BC. The tradition dates back four millennia to Akitu, a 12-day festival in mid-March celebrating the spring barley harvest.
Let’s get back to helping you make good on your 2023 New Year’s resolution. After setting, defining, and writing down your short- and long-term goals, it’s time to move on to the third and fourth steps.
3. Prepare
Many confuse planning and preparation, some even use the terms interchangeably, but they’re far from the same. While you can plan on baking an excellent apple pie, if you don’t buy the right ingredients, preheat the oven, and follow the recipe, you’ll fail. Let’s use our weight-loss goal as an example. Preparation may mean getting what you need to cook healthy meals, buying running shoes, and joining a gym. No matter how much you plan, you must start preparing at some point. Together, planning and preparation will get you ready for the final step.
4. Execute
Our new book, The Everyday Warrior, lays out a practical framework for overcoming obstacles and achieving your goals. This brings us to the final step of following through on your New Year’s resolution. In the military, we describe this step as having a bias for action. In the book, we say, “Get shit done, make shit happen, and do it all again tomorrow.” These are just different ways of saying that after you’ve planned and prepared, it’s time to execute.
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