Happy New Year! I hope that 2018 is a great year for you and that you accomplish all of the goals that you set for yourself in 2018. Just don’t tell me or anyone else what those goals are unless you’re asking for an accountability partner. It’s not that I don’t care about your goals, in fact, I do care and that’s why I don’t want you to tell people about them. Years ago I learned that if you tell someone your goal, you’re less likely to accomplish it. Don’t take my word for it, watch this three minute TED Talk in which Derek Sivers explains the research on the psychology of keeping goals to yourself until you have reached them.

Applications for Education

If part of your plan when school starts again tomorrow is to have students talk about New Year’s resolutions, take a few minutes to watch this video with your students. I did that with my homeroom students seven years ago and one of those students recently mentioned it to me when I ran into her at a local ski resort where she now runs one of the guest services departments at the resort.