Choosing Your Goals For The New Year

Most people make New Year’s resolutions that they promptly drop before the month of January is done. But, if you learn how to choose goals that really have a chance of coming to fruition, and understand that goals need action behind them to be achieved, you’ll make this next year one of success.

This six-step process will help you choose goals for the New Year that really do have a chance to become true.

1. What Did You Accomplish This Past Year?
Starting your planning session with the positives from the past year will help get you into a better frame of mind. If you can see that you’ve accomplished a lot of what you set out to accomplish, it will give you the driving force to keep going with some of those goals that may still lie just out of reach.

2. What Did Not Go Well Last Year?
More than likely you made some goals that you didn’t achieve. It’s good to look at those items and try to determine why you didn’t reach them. Were they realistic goals? Did you make a good enough plan to ensure you met each goal? Did you make too many other goals so that you simply did not have enough time?

3. Make a Short List of Things You’d Like to Accomplish in the Coming Year
Now make a short list of no more than five things you’d like to accomplish this coming year. You might pick something you’ve already been succeeding at that you want to continue for the New Year, or you might choose some things from the list that did not get accomplished. You may also choose to add completely new items to the list.

4. Make a List of Things You’re Going to Stop Doing
One reason some New Year’s goals aren’t accomplished is lack of time. Therefore, you need to make room for the new goals. This requires that you make a list of things you’re not going to do anymore that will give you time for the new goals. For example, let’s say one of your new goals is to exercise 30 minutes a day, and last year you read 30 minutes a day. You might choose to end reading for the year in favor of exercising.

5. Refine Your To-Do List with Real Plans of Action
Here you’ll take your list of five and move it down to one or two things you really and truly want to and need to accomplish for the New Year. The way you’ll do that is to actually plan each thing out. You obviously want to accomplish these items by the end of the year, so start at that date. Then, moving backwards, make a plan of actions you need to take each day to actually achieve your goals.

6. Put Everything in Your Calendar
No plans will happen if they’re not down on paper or a digital calendar. Each step you need to take should be in the calendar. That way, any given day when you wake up in the morning, you simply look at the calendar and find out what you need to do. You don’t need to even focus on the end result, only what you are doing today or this hour.

These six steps will help you reach any goals that you want to for the New Year. Remember, it’s all about narrowing down what really matters, making realistic goals that you have time to work into your already busy day, and then scheduling everything for success.
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2016!  Excited for this year!  Thank you for your feedback and suggestions.  Please keep them coming.  My direct email is doreen@doreendilger.com.   Wishing you a productive day!