From Resolutions to Reality…and Back Again

It’s a little over a month since New Year’s Day. This is usually the time where I look back, and realize I’ve failed miserably at a good number of my New Year’s Resolutions. My desk has lost its well-organized look, I’m back to watching television from the bed instead of the rowing machine, and that unsweet iced tea has morphed into full-sugar Pepsi with a side of chocolate.

Resolutions are hard. And at some point in our lives–usually around this time of the year–we are going to FAIL. And you know what? That’s okay.

At my day job, I’m an accountant for a large local hospital system. I do a variety of accountancy-related things, from journal entries, to programming, to budget meetings. The budget process is usually a five or six month event, starting with pulling last year’s detailed financial statements. At that point, we start sitting down with department managers, and start creating a final list of amounts that have been adjusted based on various questions. Are we expecting an increase in volumes next year? Do we expect to buy any big stuff that we might take out some loans on? Are we hiring new people? Getting a new benefits plan? Changing the way charge for services? The list goes on and on. We spend countless hours sifting through numbers, trying to find a combination that makes sense. At the end, we have a brand new set of goals (or resolutions) for the company as a whole. The budget is a beautiful, shiny thing.

But I’m going to let you in on a little secret…I’ve been in this field for over ten years now, worked at four different companies in three different industries, and I have NEVER ONCE seen a budget that was spot on in hindsight. Sometimes the differences are good things: revenues were higher than anticipated, a deal was cut with a vendor that saved us thousands of dollars in expenses, or we received a sizable donation from a sponsor (non-profits!) But sometimes the differences aren’t so exciting: Federal payout percentages were adjusted down, an office space flooded and insurance didn’t cover it all, or we just plain forgot to include something in our estimates.

“So,” you’re asking me, “why in the world do you spend half a year putting together a list of numbers that YOU KNOW are wrong?” And my answer to that is this. Because we need to see where we are going, and we need to take the time to PLAN out where we are going. That way, during the year, we have a physical, official idea of what we want to do as a company. An idea we really had to think about. The  yearly budget is our backdrop for what we do as a business. Our rails. Our road-map.

Because every business–whether it’s a huge hospital system or a single author with big dreams–needs a road-map for continued success. Huge convoluted financial plans or a simple list of things that need to get done; it’s important to sit down and reaffirm what it is you’re doing, and where you want to end up.

And if we realize later that our road-map was closer to a kindergartner’s art project than Picasso’s paintings, we admit it, and we do better next year.

And this is the point of my post. Goals are important, useful things. And in my writing life, I need the structure that yearly goals provide. Finish x books this year. Take classes on x so I can do it better. Set aside x days to just relax. And if things fall apart, I remind myself that it’s not the end of the world. I do the best I can, and when next year rolls around, I adjust my plans accordingly. Budgets (and goals) are a tool. They aren’t created to cause you stress. (Though some department managers might disagree with me!) They are there to help you remember what’s important to you, and to serve as a guide when real life steps in.

So if you made resolutions (your “budget”) this year, I urge you to sit down and take a look at them. To they still look reasonable? If not, make a note of it, and determine why. Where they bad estimates? Do you need to make a process change to make them work? Or are they simply not lining up with where you wanted to go?

The good news is – you aren’t a corporation. Once the budget is in, my department doesn’t get to change it. (Monthly forecasts? That’s a completely different story!) But if you find that your resolutions are no longer lining up with who you want to be as an author, a person, a mother, whatever…change them! And start walking in the right direction.

And for those of you out there who ARE still reading this from the rowing machine instead of the bed? I salute you.