Happy New Year! And a bit on New Year's Resolutions.

Happy New Year, Everyone!

I love New Year's Day. A fresh start, a great time to reflect on the year gone by and the year ahead, a great time for aspiration. And, of course, there's college football bowls.

New Year's resolutions are also a part of this day and are perhaps as old as the first time humans recorded New Year's day. In all those years though, I'm not sure that we, as a people, have gotten much better at keeping them. Research shows that between 10 - 25% of people who set New Year's resolutions fail to keep them. That's not to say we should quit setting them as they indeed have value when kept. Rather, instead of making a resolution for the sake of the resolution itself, do so with a reason why and a plan to execute.

I personally don't set a new year's resolution but I do have annual goals. The difference, perhaps, is that I tend to set mine before the new year begins, I have a reason why I want to achieve the goal and I track my goals weekly (if not daily).

A few basic tips for anyone who wants to set some great annual goals for 2009:

• Understand that a goal is an acknowledgement that you are not currently where you want to be in some area of your life. That you want to grow.
• Know that having a goal creates positive pressure which is necessary to move you forward
• Create two groups of goals: professional/career goals and personal goals
• Identify the goals you want in each group. Be incredibly specific. Too often, people will set a goal like "lose weight" or "get a new job". Goals like these are both unexciting and unspecific. A recipe for failure before you even get started .
• Practice S.M.A.R.T. Specific. Measurable. Attainable. Realistic. Timely.
• Set one audatious, super stretch goal for each group. Make it one that you have a good deal of uncertainty about achieving but if you did - WOW! Make these goals on the very far edge of attainable and realistic. Make them fun!
• Create a strong enough "WHY" for each goal. What will you gain by achieving the goal and/or what will you lose by failing to achieve it? This is a step many people forget and it is a step that can push you over that last big hump toward achieving your goal. A "why" provides you with a strong emotion to attach to the goal, as well as the necessary motivation to drive you to success. Without the "why" your goal becomes a "to do" and that drains the life right out of it.
• Make your goals AND the reasons why public. You can determine just how public but at the minimum share with a spouse, trusted friend or coach. This person can help you stay on track. It provides you with accountability.
• Set up a system to track (i.e. measure) your progress. This is another step people often miss. They set a great New Year's Resolution but only check in on their progress the following New Year's Day only to find out they failed. At the minimum you should check in on your progress quarterly. For the most important goals, or those you believe will be the most difficult for you to achieve, you should track progress weekly at a minimum to start and probably even daily. The more you check progress the more likely you are to make progress.
• Make your progress public. This again will provide you with accountability - not to meantion reasons to celebrate!
• You might also consider hiring a coach who can provide perspective, motivation, tracking and accountability
  

TAKE ACTION NOW!

• Set aside an hour or two now, today to go through this goal setting process
• Need a coach, some help or just want to share? Contact us! See top right hand side of page for contact information.
• Share your most audatious goals with us! Send an e-mail or message on Twitter.

Go get 'em and Happy New Year!