Happy New Year! Are resolutions part of your annual routine? In last month’s Editor’s Desk, I talked about the significance of reflection and forecasting. While important, this popular year-end process often results in creating resolutions. It’s an easy to do when those around you are sharing their lofty expectations for the coming year. But the unfortunate reality is few people are ever able to stick to their resolutions, which often results in disappointment.
The problem is that resolutions by nature lack substance. They lack clear goals and a means of achieving those goals such as a structured process with realistic milestones designed to maintain momentum. This is something that most of us can learn a good bit by watching how researchers work. In research, there is always an end goal that usually centers around a complex problem to solve.
Getting there does not happen by chance. Instead, realizing our goals takes hard work and many times means suffering through setbacks, which forces further investigation and sometimes results in starting over from scratch.
Also, the finished product might be quite different from what the researcher initially envisioned. And that is perfectly fine—it really isn’t about the finished product. It is more about the path, the process, and the evolution that transpires throughout. After all, it is the process and the lessons learned that ultimately lead to innovation. And it is continued innovation that sets products and companies apart from the competition.
Senior Editor Justine Murphy provides a prime example in her feature article on the wonder material we now know as graphene (see article). None of the creative uses for this wonder material would exist today without the efforts of researchers and engineers focused on achieving goals. It should be exciting to see how researchers build upon the latest graphene discoveries currently taking place at Purdue University.
This industry’s success is steeped in innovation—we need to keep it going. Rather than sharing your resolutions, let’s hear your goals. I’d love to learn about them.
