I will be posting my personal goals for 2008 later this week. First, some thoughts on new year’s resolutions and goal setting…

Each year I spend a week or so setting some personal goals for the year. Here are the steps I take to set and acheive my goals:

STEP ONE – RESOLUTIONS REEK: I never make resolutions. For the most part, the resolutions that I see people make are more like wishes. Wishing won’t get you anywhere.

STEP TWO – BE SPECIFIC: Goals are different. They are concrete, attainable, and specific. For example, every new year tons of people say, “My new years resolution is to lose weight.” AWESOME! But, if we could focus a little more and say exactly how much weight we want to lose, a date we want to lose it by, and what the benefits to losing it will be, we are more likely to be successful to reach our goals.

STEP THREE – PLAN: Another important step we miss when making New Year’s resolutions is a plan. If you want to meet a goal, you have to have a plan. Write out a few action steps for each goal and as you are in the process of achieving your goals, make the necessary changes in your strategy. If part of your plan isn’t working, change the plan.

STEP FOUR – DIVIDE AND CONQUER: To often we divide our energies between too many directions. We make a long list of habits to break and changes to make…and we defeat ourselves before we ever start the new year. Narrow your list of goals down to the few that are most important to you and concentrate your energies on those. When you’ve achieved success with those, then you can begin work on other areas. When I set personal goals, I also prioritize the goal list…this helps me divide and conquer!

STEP FIVE – REST STOPS: Reward yourself along the way. Some goals are incredibly hard to reach. That means, it is important to take those rest stops along the way. Rewards inspire us to success and keep us laser focused.

If we all set some New Year’s Goals each year rather than being wishful and making those ridiculous resolutions that reek, I am convinced that we would be more successful at actually reaching them.