How to Set up Successful New Year Goals
New year goals have had a bad rap for a long time. It’s the natural time for a fresh start. We have goals for health, wealth and relationships. However, each year 1/3 of American’s make a goal but that goal is dismissed in 6 months. It’s not only the goal that’s important. It’s how to keep on track all year long with it. Here’s how to set up successful new year goals.
Why define the goal
Stephen Covey, productivity guru, writes all about how to be your personal best. Habit #2 of Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People is to “start with the end in mind.” When setting a goal, to “begin with the end in mind” helps us chart a course for success. When we define the goal, we have a clarity. What does the end look like? What does the end feel like? It’s a reminder of a road map analogy where you can’t travel to your destination without a road map. Making sure your goal is well defined to get to the end.
How to define the goal
Metrics are an important of defining your goal. How do you know you reached your goal? By setting up simple measure-able steps. It’s part of the SMART goals acronym: Specific, Measureable, Achieveable, Realistic and Time based. Be as specific as possible, with a measureable, realistic, achieveable time based goal. In addition, write down your SMART goals to see these each day.
Make yourself accountable every day. Keep a money log of where you spent every dime and a food journal for every bite. Share your successes each day with supporters who help you stay on track. It’s keeping your eye on the prize every day that helps you measure your success.
Work in collaboration
There are lots of pieces to reach your goal. You may not have all the skills to reach your goal. Working in collaboration makes reaching your goal more fun and easier to accomplish. The best practice is to seek out others who have a strength you need to reach your goal. At home and at work, your team helps you accomplish your goals.
When you work as a team, the energy of your team makes the difference. Research shows that positive thinking helps you view more possibilities. With more possibilities, there’s greater probability for reaching your goals.
Sharpen your skills
Your goal may require more education, more organization, or more practice. You may already be aware of obstacles to your goal that can be avoided by learning more, taking a new track, or being more skilled. In all these cases sharpening up your skills gets you to your goal.
Take a class to learn something new this year to make you more productive. Your business can expand as you read a blog, view a TEDx talk, or participate in a Mastermind group. And besides, you are probably someone who loves to learn so feed that part of your soul!
What goal to set
Typically our new year goals are lose weight, get organized, or save money. Choose a goal that has compelling reason with a great end in mind.
- If it’s lose weight, what realistic number of pounds by what date do you want to lose?Who else is on your team who also wants to lose weight? What combination of tools will you use? What skills can you sharpen to help you?
- To be more organized, decide what space, what it will look like, and how many hours a week you will work toward the goal. Who can be your clutter buddy? What strategy will you use to declutter?
- To save money, use a tracking tool to see where you spend money now, review what can be cut down, and create a place where will the savings be held. How much do you want to save?
Reaching your new year goals doesn’t have to be complicated, but it does have to be strategic. While having a goal is important, what’s more important is to have a compelling reason to accomplish your goal. Losing weight is really about living life more fully. Being more organized is really about being less stressed and sharing experiences. You save money to be more secure in our chaotic world. Find your compelling reason for your goal and it will make it much easier to stay committed.
More tips and tricks for productivity, organizing and related ideas here!
One of our Associate Members did a presentation on SMART goals at our November meeting and it was very well received. I think this is a great acrostic for everyone to know and embrace!
@Seana – It really helps us define our goal this way!