New Year’s Resolution
Happy New Year!
I’d like to thank our users, friends, and families for the tremendous support you’ve given us. We are working hard and using your support as a catalyst for Rypple’s success!
January 1st bears great symbolism in our modern lives. The first day of the New Year marks the beginning of a new cycle and many of us use this occasion to make a New Year’s resolution. Finding out about the resolutions my friends were making prompted me to make one of my own and symbolically begin the New Year with a self-improvement promise. According to the New Year’s Resolutions experiment, men were significantly more likely to succeed when engaged in setting one Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time based goal (aka, the S.M.A.R.T goal!)
I had many self-improvement ideas, but I couldn’t figure out the one thing I should really focus on. Luckily, Rypple came to rescue. I sent several Rypples to friends and colleagues to find out what other people thought I should improve. What surprised me was that both my friends and colleagues had a similar message for me! And what was really shocking was that some comments clearly pointed out that I was not the good of a listener or the pleasant guy I imagined I was. – gasp! Here are some common things I heard:
Have a vision of what you want when stating your case… Keep it super super simple.
You have a tendency to be a bit argumentative and to interrupt others when they are stating their opinion or point of view. To fix this make sure to listen and let others finish before replying
Trust that you can learn from others
Don’t assume you know why things are being done. Listen to others first
You display annoyance/frustration when telling others about their mistakes
After I calmed down from the initial shock, I distilled all responses and one goal crystallized in my mind; I will improve my communication skills. Specifically, I’d like to become friendlier, more open-minded and less argumentative when talking to friends and colleagues. I hope this will make me a more pleasant person and will help me engage people into more meaningful conversations. This may feel abstract and hard to attain and measure, but I hope to continue to use Rypple to my advantage to find out how I’m tracking by regularly getting new feedback from my advisers. These regular checks points will help me measure my progress (because, after all, my advisers are the only ones who can tell me if I’m improving) and get support and further advice on what I could do to improve.
I am very excited about all this because I feel it is something very positive I can achieve. I invite you to use Rypple to find out on what you should concentrate in the New Year. You may be surprised! 
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Brett Gersekowski
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http://ryanagraves.com Ryan Graves
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http://www.reachfurther.com Liz Cable
