Marvel Studios recently released its latest movie, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, and millions of people across the world went out to watch it, ranking it not only as the No.1 movie at the box office globally in its opening weekend but also making it the second-largest opening weekend in 2022 according to Forbes. If you were wondering, the largest opening weekend in 2022 was for Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which is also a Marvel Studios production.
You may be wondering why I am updating you about what is happening at the box office, so please allow me to reassure you that I will be bringing the point home shortly. You can rest assured that it won’t take as long as a Marvel Cinematic Universe phase. In the spirit of throwing around more unnecessary information, the two movies mentioned above are in phase IV.
Why am I telling you this? For starters, I watched Wakanda Forever over the weekend and enjoyed it, so I am still giddy with the excitement and talking about it to anyone who will listen. Naturally, I can’t say anything about anything because spoilers are strongly frowned upon on the internet.
Secondly, and the real reason, I have always admired Marvel’s big-picture strategy. As an avid fan, I have benefited from it greatly. And isn’t that really what resolutions, New Year’s or otherwise, are about? The big picture.
As we come to the end of the year, we are going to engage in discussions about resolutions in one form or another, whether with ourselves or others, so I wanted to share some tips that might be helpful with how you make resolutions, set goals, build systems, and work towards the life you want.
My first tip is to identify your big picture. This is your big audacious dream/plan/aspiration; you name it. This would be your answer to the ‘where do you see yourself in 1 or 5, or 10 years?’ question. I understand that it can feel overwhelming to think about the future when the present already seems too much to handle, so if you feel overwhelmed, know that you are not alone and everyone is doing the best they can with what they have.
Now that you can see your picture, what milestones do you need to achieve to put the picture together? These are the individual goals that will get you to your dream. What does the journey to your dream look like, and what steps do you need to take to get there? This seemingly simple but utterly crucial question is the second tip.
At this point, you are probably beginning to feel some excitement about your picture and can almost touch it, which is great but hold your horses. My third tip is arguably the most important; build systems to help you achieve each goal/milestone. This is where routines, goal timelines and plans, and tools are built.
My fourth and final tip is monitoring and evaluating your progress, or as I like to call it, trial and error. This is where you would answer questions like, ‘what is(n’t) working?’ and ‘after how long will you consider exploring alternative options if your current plan doesn’t yield results?’
Bonus Tip: Don’t forget to make happy / rest resolutions. Whether it is taking leave to enjoy time away from work or going on vacations to build beautiful memories, you deserve it, and as they say, you can’t pour from an empty cup.
Bonus Bonus Tip: Don’t judge me. It’s the holiday season, good cheer is in the air, and I am feeling like my most generous self, so I will leave you with my most important tip – however you decide to go about your resolutions, be consistent. When the cool kids said, ‘Consistency is major key’, they were not lying. Decide on a path and consistently follow through.
Happy resolution-making season.
Thumbnail Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash
