January 5, 2016
New Year's Resolutions
Happy New Year 2016! With the New Year comes New Year's Resolutions. You know the common ones, lose weight, eat healthier, exercise more, spend more time with family and friends, quit procrastinating, pay off the credit cards, and you can probably add many more to the list. You also know most resolutions go unmet. You ever thought about why? It goes with the saying, "if you fail to plan, you are planning to fail." Sounds a little like something we talk about in Extension.
To be successful with any goal, one needs to have an ACTION PLAN in place. Just saying you are going to pay off the credit cards isn't going to magically make those monthly statements get smaller and smaller. Instead, an action plan needs to be created. An action plan gets specific enough to create the desired change towards your goal. An action plan might be as simple as to say, I am not going to use credit cards for purchasing groceries or gas, or I will not purchase anything over $100 with a credit card. If you follow through on those one or two actions, you will be successful in reducing your credit card debt.
So, what might be a New Year's Resolution I would vote for in K-State Research and Extension? In the spirit of our five grand challenges, be it resolved that we will strive for innovations, discoveries, and technologies in finding solutions to the grand challenges. The action plan is largely written through the great work of our program focus teams. After that, it is the creative energy of each of us to design and implement programs that will advance that discovery to demonstration and application. And, through that work we will all help K-State Research and Extension to better achieve its organizational core values!
K-State Research and Extension is guided by five organizational core values:
INTEGRITY to develop and deliver credible information
COMMUNICATION to provide common understanding,
SCHOLARSHIP to foster lifelong learning,
LEADERSHIP to serve as an agent of change, and
INCLUSION to encourage active participation by all.
Hope your Holidays exceeded all your expectations for time spent with family, friends, and to rejuvenate yourself. And, I hope the best for each of you in being able to carry out your plan to achieve your most thoughtful resolutions for 2016!! Have a great week, and a great 2016!