Setting Goals and Making Changes for the New Year

1/14/2015

Allan Hardy, Principal

I shared with them how Mark Zuckerberg, one of the co-founders of Facebook approached this topic. Zuckerberg has made a tradition of publicizing his New Year’s resolutions. For this year, he has resolved to read two books per month as a way of “learning about new cultures, beliefs, histories and technologies.” He hopes to encourage others to read his book selections and generate a discussion about them by posting about his progress toward his goal on the Facebook page “A Year of Books.” Using a public forum in this way may also motivate Zuckerberg to achieve his goal.

I also pointed out to students that January resolutions don’t have to be made public or involve one big goal. Research has shown the main reason many resolutions fall by the wayside once February rolls around is that the desired change in behavior is too sharp to be maintained. An alternative approach might be to focus instead on making one small change per day. If the entire Greenwood community made one small change daily, the collective impact of that small change would be deeply felt in and outside the school.

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One small action a day is sometimes a more effective way to make changes than setting big goals that are difficult to accomplish immediately.

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Greenwood College School

443 Mount Pleasant Road
Toronto, ON M4S 2L8
Tel: 416 482 9811

We acknowledge with gratitude the Ancestral lands upon which our main campus is situated. These lands are the Ancestral territories of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy, Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation, Anishinabek and the Wendake. The shared responsibility of this land is honoured in the Dish with One Spoon Treaty and as settlers, we strive to care for the land, the waters, and all creatures in the spirit of peace. We are responsible for respecting and supporting the enduring presence of all First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples. When away from this campus we vow to be respectful to the land by protecting and honouring it. We will create relationships with the people and the land we may visit by understanding the territories we enter and the nations who inhabit them.