The children of the resolutions: Do things differently in 2011

With 2010 drawing to an icy close, Christmas parties pile up and shoppers slide from store to store like wealthy penguins. Online buyers, once smug, now worry that their travel-affected gifts will spend Christmas Day huddled in an icy Dundee warehouse rather than in the arms of family. The BBC talks about the snow, ITV talks about the snow, John Snow talks about the snow on Channel 4. The year is shutting itself down, like the cogs of a huge machine slowing, soon to reach a grinding halt. This year will be preserved by sub-zero temperatures, as if cryogenically frozen, perhaps to be discovered by aliens thousand of years in the future who will dust off the snow, peer in, turn to each other and telepathically say ‘WTF was going on here?!’

It has been a crazy year in the UK; I think this is a statement that people will agree with from the poorest families to the top of Government. Things have been changing. A new government, budget cuts, ongoing wars, hysteria in American politics. The emergence of new opposition has been seen too: the student protests (the first of many) and the release of top secret Government information mean that people, at every level, will be made accountable for their actions.

2010 has been a year where mounting problems became consequences – a return of harsh reality for institutions that were delusional to the weaknesses they possessed. This was as true of the UK government as it was for our abject performances at the World Cup in South Africa. But at least the problems are out in the open now, and we know where the building needs to be done. If 2010 saw us start the new decade by taking the wrecking ball to crumbling buildings, next year at least gives us a clean slate to build on.

So it will be 2011, and if that doesn’t sound like the future, I don’t know what does. Out-dated, unhelpful practices are slowly disappearing and newer, smarter ways of working/thinking/playing are beginning to emerge. How we act and what we do influences how we feel, so aside from the customary gym membership, here are five resolutions for 2011, for a better year, and the organisations that can help you make sure you keep your promises:

1) Find a job that you really love

Do something you love

More so than ever before, people are defined by their jobs. Your profession is your main contribution to the world – do spread sheets really sum you up? Do you really want to work for a company if you don’t believe in what they do? If you’re always harping on about carpe diem, quit your job and do something you love… Escape The City and their growing community of escapees will show you how.

2) Have fun supporting great causes

Have fun, do good.

‘Meeting new people’ is an often repeated resolution, especially by people whose lives are dominated by their work. Add to this a desire to have more fun and support worthy causes and you have a perfect three-pronged 2011 mission: to have more fun, meet new people and to help others. Sounds difficult? It needn’t be: LeapAnywhere have created an online platform that will help you find fun events in cities around the world, support great causes and meet like-minded people.

3) Start something of your own

Empty property? An opportunity not an eye-sore, say 3Space.

You will never know if you can do something until you’ve tried it. There is more support than ever before to help you get your ideas off the ground. Whether or not your venture is a success, the experience you will gain is priceless. Open Society can help support your idea and find people to bring it to life, and 3Space can help secure free space for your charity or social enterprise, particularly for meeting space and events. In 2011, try your hand at starting something – however small -  and find out what makes Richard Branson look so smug.

4) Get involved with your local community

Lending, giving away, skills

Where better a place to change things than in the people and places closest to you? Find out the opportunities your community has to offer with Stickyboard and Streetbank. Transform your area’s carbon footprint with Transition Town, Project Dirt and United Diversity. Or just support local shops and businesses – many London boroughs now have reward cards offering great discounts.

5) Know the world we live in

Living in a desert island paradise sounds like a fantasy, but there are organisations that can help make it happen. Tribewanted runs cross-cultural communities where you can live as part of a tribe in an island (now in Fiji and Sierra Leone), and SL Volunteers provides people with volunteering opportunities across Sri Lanka – from sports coaching to working with the UN.

Travel plans aside, the online world is providing increasingly interesting ways of connecting people and presenting information. Now that people are finally understanding Twitter, its true value as a bespoke news service and way of keeping your finger on pulse is emerging. Wikileaks has provided insight into a world we’d never thought we’d see. The apps industry is playing out behind-the-scenes and is described in terms as excitably as those ‘Wild West’ early days of the internet. Augmented reality, photo searches: these already exist. It’s taken 15 years for the true value of these technologies to be realised and understood. 2011 could be the year where technology starts to deliver on some of the promises made in our imaginations; you won’t want to miss it.

Advertisement