Why Not to Start New Year’s Resolutions Now?

Productivity

When I write this article it’s the middle of November 2022. Wars all around the globe, sky rocking inflation, upcoming recession, many different diseases – depression and anxiety on the top of the list. Let’s be honest – it isn’t the best landscape that we could’ve imagined for ourselves to live in. What does that have to do with the New Year’s resolutions?

When the times are hard, we prefer to stay low, to wait until the situation improves. We wait. And we wait. And we wait a little bit more. And guess what?

There is always SOMETHING. Politics, wars, pandemics, environment pollution, education crisis. You name it. There is always something that is going on that we can treat as an excuse to not taking uncomfortable action, to change something, to get a new job or to end a relationship that isn’t working anymore. So the real question is, what can we do to stick to the New Year’s resolutions that most of us make at the very beginning of the year? Let’s start to work on them now.

Why most of the New Year’s resolutions don’t stick?

We are so motivated, have a lot of energy, sometimes even a great plan. We wait until January 1 and… Only about 16% of us are sticking to the resolutions we make at the beginning of the year, most of us give up during the first 6 weeks.

Why?

“I don’t have time”, “I don’t have money”, “I need to focus on different things now”, “I am not motivated enough to do this”, “Nobody supports me in this”. That’s just some of the most frequent ones. And it doesn’t really matter if we are talking about getting rid of bad elements of our life or building new, good ones.

Excuses are one thing. Why else those resolutions don’t stick?

We use magical thinking of the New-Year-New-Me situation that only lasts few days.
The resolutions are too big.
Those things we want to change are not connected to anything that is already in our life.
We want to achieve something in a really short period of time.
We assume 0/1 situation.
We don’t differentiate goals from habits.
The resolution is not about us, it’s about other people or things that we have zero influence on.
We don’t enjoy it.

Which of those is applicable to yourself? More than one? All of them?

What can we do differently?

Each bullet point can be resolved – some of those are easier to manage, some are more complex and difficult. But altogether, it’s possible to finish with the old, bad habits and beliefs about resolutions, and start with being better with them, starting today.

1. We use magical thinking of the New-Year-new-me situation that only lasts few days.

This is the reason why I encourage you to start today, not to wait until January 1. Magical thinking can be connected to some traditions, rituals, habits taken from family, religion or society. New Year’s resolutions are part of our social life – media talk about it, we talk about it every year with our friends, the subject is always there when the year starts. Stop it and change the way of thinking and doing. Don’t wait for a perfect timing, it can never come.

2. The resolutions are too big.

There is nothing wrong with thinking and dreaming big. My advice is: dream big, plan small. Divide your dreams and goals for smaller chunks that are more achievable. Don’t underestimate the small – sometimes we value only the big things, and it is a crime to our well-being and a sense of self-recognition. Remember, small is better than zero, and a sum of small things makes the whole big thing happen.

3. Those things we want to change are not connected to anything that is already in our life.

It is always harder to create a new habit or skill when we start from scratch, then to develop the thing that is already there. When you plan new things you would like to have, always choose the existing habit, activity or a simple thing you do every day. Glue a new thing to the old one, it makes it stick.

4. We want to achieve a resolution in a really short period of time.

I know that we all like quick results. We want to believe in losing 10kg in one month or in learning how to read a book per day in two weeks. Try to divide the bigger dreams to the smaller chunks that you can achieve faster. It’ll give you constant boost of motivation and will keep you on track to not quit before you see any results.

5. We assume 0/1 situation (either I achieve it or not – there is nothing in between, no space for flexibility, change or not being perfect all the time).

We punish ourselves when we eat a piece of candy when we wanted to quit. Let’s say that you’ve decided to quit eating it starting Monday, and on Thursday you ate a small piece of chocolate. What most people do? “Screw it, I’ve already slipped, so I’ll eat the whole thing and start my diet on Monday”. And it goes on and on, as a never-ending story. What about that: “all right, I’ve slipped – it can happen to anyone”, and keep continue not eating candy after the event. Nobody is perfect and there is no point in punishing ourselves for it every single day.

6. We don’t differentiate goals from habits.

A goal is a thing we want to achieve, and a habit is a repetitive, sometimes even unconscious sequence of behavior that can lead us to reach the goal. It’s important that we differentiate those two elements, just to make sure that we build habits that are going to be useful while achieving the goals we want.

7. The resolution is not about us, it’s about other people or things that we have zero influence on.

We often quit on things because we don’t see result of our actions. And we don’t see the results, because we want to change something (or someone) that is way out of our influence zone. Remember that we can only change things that are in our scope of control – how we react on certain things, how we communicate, set boundaries or use our time. Focus on that, don’t waste time on something that won’t bring any results, only frustration.

8. We don’t enjoy it.

Is life fun anymore? I can feel that mostly it isn’t, so let’s do something about it. When we make resolutions painful, they don’t stick. It’s a saying in Poland that mothers passes to their daughters: “Do you want to be pretty? You need to suffer”. That’s how we learn to suffer in silence, don’t speak up when our boundaries are violated or don’t tell others about our real needs. Resolutions should be challenging, but they should be fun at the same time. If you are choosing a new sport discipline to train, pick the one that brings you sweat, but also joy or opportunity to meet new people. Don’t make it a punishment, it’ll only make it worse and you’ll quit.

The bottom line

Even if we really want, the magical wands don’t exist. We can’t simply wish for a change that will come to us before we even realize. Every change requires work, taking uncomfortable action, making mistakes and learning from them. It is not ideal, but it’s life. We can take it or leave it, it’s our choice if we stay in the miserable life that we are going to regret OR we can make an effort and move forward.

So start with the New Year’s resolutions now. Take a piece of paper or open an Excel spreadsheet. Make a list. Divide the bigger things into the smaller, more achievable chunks. Have fun and enjoy the process of change. Observe how you grow every single day, without waiting for the perfect moment to start.

What do you say to that idea?

Udostępnij

Komentarze

Comments are closed.

Czytaj także

Self-Development

2025 Lessons That I Take With Me for 2026

I would never say that I’m going to be that person, but this year it seems proper. I’d like to share with you my biggest lessons, gleaned from various aspects of my life. Because we can talk a lot, but the actions are what make the whole talking meaningful. That’s why I’ve decided to share what I’ve learned this year, so you can get inspired, see how my brain works, and maybe make some plans for yourself for 2026 using this sparkle. 2x Business Takes Time and Effort It was a year of hustle. Saying goodbye to safe options, making bold decisions about ending some partnerships, and going all in on who I really want to be as a Founder and Leader. Those decisions are never easy, but I’ve learned that if I want to go into the next level, I need to be scared but do it anyway. To mitigate risks, be smart, but take massive action. Building a business from scratch is never easy. Even if you do it for the 10th time, there’s always something that’s not going to look the way you planned. Not to mention when you do it for the first time ever. But I’ve discovered that consistency, moving forward, even if it’s one small step a day, is making the difference. 2026 is going to be a year of further progress. Because 10x is easier than 2x. Hosting a Podcast is my Thing This week, Leman Tech Leadership Podcast celebrated episode number 121. 2 episodes per week, 52 weeks of the year. Amazing guests from all around the world are joining me to have a conversation around leadership in technology, startups, and Founder’s struggles, building teams, fighting burnout, and many more. Last year was a year of starting it; 2025 was a year of staying consistent. 2026 is going to be a year of scaling it, so more people can use what we create. It is demanding, it requires scheduling, matching calendars, time zones, and doing research about the guests and solo content. I want to give as much value as possible every time I start recording, so I need to be mindful about the process all the time. But it’s totally worth it, and as long as people are listening, I’m going to continue recording. Writing a Book is Not THAT Hard I’ve struggled with starting to write a book for years. There was always something else to do, more important, more urgent. Moving from 9-5 through hybrid, to full-time entrepreneur, building a business from scratch, learning completely new skills I’ve never needed before, like sales, marketing, or social media strategy. But the second half of the year taught me that it will never be less busy; I just need to make a schedule, book the time, and do it. Don’t negotiate with myself. 2025 was a year of starting to write, and 2026 will be to publish it. Being an author is going to be a new part of my identity that already started growing in me, because the writing process… Is not that hard for me. I sit in front of my computer, I put on headphones that reduce ambient noise, and I just write. It’s also a lesson: People think that things are hard, sometimes impossible, or out of reach. But the truth is that many of them are hard only in our brain, which tries to protect us; when we start doing it, it turns out that it’s not THAT hard. We might even be mad at ourselves that we didn’t do it sooner. But hey, no regrets; only lessons. Obsession About Health is a Good One Ever since my MS diagnosis almost 7 years ago, I’ve become more conscious about my health choices. But this year was on steroids: Prioritising movement (6 workouts/week), moving into the next level as a hiker (finishing Korona Gór Polski and doing my first long-trail event [45 km in less than 16 hours]). Tracking my food habits, transforming some of them, and some are still in progress for 2026. But almost half of my MS brain changes are gone, so… I guess it’s worth the effort. Am I a little bit obsessive about my waking up / going to bed time or food choices? Maybe. Do I regret not eating late with my friends or watching TV so I can catch up on the endless shows that are on my Netflix list? Not at all. The lesson is that everything is a choice. And what I do with my time, health, and energy is the most important choice of all. No drama. Keeping Boundaries is not Selfish When you build something from scratch, you need to be very mindful of where and with whom you spend your time. What serves you and what robs you of the energy you need to push forward? 2025 was a year of keeping my boundaries where they should be, even if people around me weren’t happy about it. Getting up and going to bed early. Cutting the relationships with people and clients that are energy vampires (yes, you can fire a client and survive). Eating what serves me and not getting others’ into my brain with: “Ooooh, it’s just one time, how harmful can it be?” Not negotiating with myself: When I have something in the calendar (like “Book time” for writing), I cut the distractions and sit to write. Even if I have 10 different things I should take care of. Learning how to keep boundaries with myself was a lesson of the year. I plan to do it even more in 2026. Travelling is Freedom For me, travelling is freedom. Whether it’s about work or pure private trips, when I get on the plane, I feel like I can breathe again. 2026 is going to be even more abundant with it: Q1 is for Portugal and New Zealand (first APAC stage!), Q2 for a 3-week US trip, and then… Who knows! What makes you feeling free?

Czytaj dalej

28 December 2025 No Comments

Leadership

Experiencing Burnout in IT? Here’s Why

Are you feeling sick to your stomach on Sunday afternoon when you think about starting work on Monday? Or maybe you are under constant stress and pressure of not delivering everything you have on your task list? Not being up to date with everything that’s changing in the Tech world? Do you have moments of energy so low that you don’t even want to get out of bed to start working? If you said “YES” to at least one of the above, it might mean that you’re in the middle of burnout. A lack of power, energy, intrinsic motivation, and engagement to do things at work. Why is burnout a new pandemic, especially in the tech world? I see so many leaders, startup Founders and team members who are experiencing that state than I can count. That’s why I’ve decided to take a closer look at the subject and give you 2 things: The root cause analyses and some solutions that you can take and implement. So, if you are this person or you know somebody who is in the burnout zone, keep reading. Burnout Root Cause No. 1: Stretching Too Much The first root cause of burnout is staying in the stretch zone too much. In the article about OKRs, I gave you 4 zones of efficiency and growth: Bored, Comfort, Stretch, and Burnout Zone. When we are in the Comfort Zone too much, there’s no growth, and we can go into the Bored Zone. When we are in the Stretch Zone too much, we can go into the Burnout Zone. If you put yourself under too much pressure, you want to learn too much in a super short period of time, if you take on responsibilities that you’re not ready for or prepared to… You can go into burnout very easily. So, the question is: Do you push yourself too hard? Do you demand of yourself the things that you’re not so demanding about when it comes to others? And don’t get me wrong here. I’m a demanding person. I push myself every single day, but it costs a lot. And I’ve learned it the hard way because I pushed myself and then pushed myself and then I got sick. So, it was the wakeup call for me: To take care of my health and get my priorities straight. Do I still have moments of exhaustion? Sure, I have. But I also know that the best way is to move from Comfort to Stretch Zone in balance to prevent burnout. Diluted focus gives you diluted results. Always. The burnout among IT professionals, leaders, C-level people, Founders, and Co-founders in the startup setup is well-documented and a growing issue. So, it’s not like it wasn’t visible in the past, and it appeared like today. It’s growing, and it’s a lot of research, a lot of studies about this issue. Burnout Root Cause No. 2: Excessive Workload Another root cause is excessive workload and working long hours. Of course. Especially when you are a Founder or Co-founder, when you are building your business from scratch. But it should be a phase, not a day-to-day reality until the rest of your life. So, we have heavy workloads and frequent overtime. When you work as a highly responsible person (the higher position in the org chart, the more responsibilities you have), there’s a pattern of an expectation, mostly unspoken, to be constantly available. It’s also attached to the SME level; it seems like everybody experiences it. And we have numbers to show us how much it cost. The research of the ISACA Tech Workplace and Culture survey from March 2025 shows that 54 % of IT professionals have heavy workloads, and 43 % point to long hours as the primary drivers of burnout. We have more. The same research is talking about tight deadlines, 41% respondents say that they lack resources, 41 % underlines unsupportive management, also 41% the lack of appreciation. Burnout Root Cause No. 3: Constant High Pressure Another bucket of the burnout root causes in tech is high pressure work environment. When you work in a startup environment, it is super high-pressure because we are going for the next round of investment, or maybe we have a VC on board, and they require results because they invested and they want to get the money back. There’s always going to be pressure when it comes to money, startup setup or the corporate world. But we also have a high pressure of an expectation for innovation and rapid delivery. Because the world is shifting, and technology is changing so fast that it’s like being on a mission all the time. Tight deadlines, high expectations. Constant misery of the business because they’re not happy with the deadlines, with the functionalities that we deliver. Burnout Root Cause No. 4: Continuous Learning Demand In connection with that, the next part is the rapid technological change in continuous learning demand. So, it adds up to the pressure as well, because we need to continually update skills, especially Subject Matter Experts, engineers, and leaders. We like it or not, we cannot know everything. And I know that a lot of Thinkers are not on board with me on that one, but it is impossible to be up to date with everything. But a lot of professionals are overwhelmed by the pressure to learn new tools and practices while managing the existing responsibilities, tasks, projects, and initiatives, because it is like having two jobs. So, one, my day job is to keep the machine running, and the next job, the second part of it, is to keep up. And it can be a cause of burnout because it’s impossible. After all, it’s a never-ending story. It’s impossible to know everything. Burnout Root Cause No. 5: Work-Life Imbalance The next one is work-life imbalance and blurred boundaries. So, it is a shift, and I think it started

Czytaj dalej

20 December 2025 No Comments

Leadership

What Does a Communication Debt Really Cost Us?

We talk a lot about communication. In fact, I am the person who teach and preach the whole idea of Communication Intelligence. And yet, we don’t talk strategically enough about one thing that is a phenomenon in many organizations: Communication Debt. I see and hear during workshops and one-on-one mentoring leadership sessions that I run a lot of thoughts, problems connected with that, and I wonder why we talk about it so much, and not doing a lot? So, I’ve decided to spend time today and unpack a little bit this subject. Let’s see what the communication debt is, when it appears in organizations and what we can do to address it, before it’s too late. What is Communication Debt? When we’re thinking about debt in overall, the first thing that comes to our mind is money. Then a lot of organizations, especially tech-oriented, are talking about technology debt (we didn’t invest in the past in the infrastructure or software, integrations, architecture: So, we have a technology debt). And the same thing is with the communication debt for me. The root cause is a lack of investment in communication processes. Lack of investment and/or lack of priority on all the communication processes that are in the organization on individual, team and organizational level. The communication debt is a gap between the level of understanding, data and information and contracts people should have and we actually have in a certain moment of time in the organization. And it can appear in many different setups: Between employees, peer-to-peer; between employee and manager, a manager and their manager; between the executive team and board or board of directors outside of them; including investors, stakeholders, shareholders, you name it. Again: This is a gap that is between what we should have in the organization and what we actually have. And not many people have awareness that they have a communication debt because… there is a lot of assumptions around. And many companies that I work with right now, and I worked with in the past, have on board people who are assuming that others know what they need, what they should or what they want. So, if we base our communication strategy on assumptions… It is not a huge surprise that people are not happy, their engagement is dropping dramatically. Gallup Institute “State of the Global Workplace 2025” Report shows that employees’ and managers’ engagement level is lower and lower. And the interesting thing is that it is even lower in the management basket than the employee basket. Of course, the differences are not very big, but they’re visible. I’m not surprised when I see that kind of results: People are less and less engaged. They are less motivated intrinsically. They look for a new work more often than 10 years ago, or even 3 years ago. And yes, you can say that this is connected to the generational change. But what the important thing is that the younger the generation is, the better they are in setting boundaries and a need for information. Transparency is one of the biggest values Gen Z has. So, this is something that for me, personally and professionally, as a leader is important to understand. Because I’m asked to support organizations, teams, a specific leader when there’s already a fire, when there’s already a drop in engagement, in efficiency, that the team doesn’t deliver tasks on time or value or projects on time. When people are quitting the team, especially tech talents that are hard and expensive to replace. And most of the time it’s too late. When the Communication Debt Appears? From everything I’ve observed for the last 10 years, working in different organizations and different teams, especially IT and tech, I can tell that the communication debt appears when there is no prior or very little priority on communication in overall. We’re not learning how to tailor our communication, we’re not investing in communication intelligence (CQ), because there is a lot of different items (more important in our brain) on the list to cover on a daily basis. And this is totally okay that tech teams need to focus on tech, because this is your genius; as well as HR people should focus on HR, and finance people should focus on finance. Every single person has a genius zone. But there is also a thing named “transferable skills”. And transferable skills relate to every single position, every single job that you are going to have in your future because you can copy and paste them and basically start using them right away. When you join a new team, organization or a new setup, business-wise and private-wise. And another thing is those skills are the umbrella (The Umbrella Skills, I call them that way). You can have your specific Subject Matter Expert skills and competencies, pieces of knowledge, but you also have the umbrella skills that like a real umbrella, are on the top of everything that you do, regardless of the situation, or the context. And this is something that I treat like the ultimate set of skills, like the power skills. Because if you don’t have them, you can have the most beautiful tech skills in the planet, but they will be useless. And now it’s hurtful. You need to have strong algorithmical communication skills, because it is a part of your intelligence. Communication intelligence is a real thing. And I can’t emphasize that enough. So, when there’s a very low or no priority on communication, when we assume that people know more than we ask, or we provide information, even if they appear for us as boring, repetitive, you name it. When you don’t invest your time and effort and energy and money in learning how to communicate better, there will always be a debt, no doubt about it. The culture of the organization determines what kind of communication, what channels of communication, what frequency of communication people

Czytaj dalej

27 June 2025 No Comments