Our Christmas celebrations are complete and as much as I want to stay in my pajamas and continue eating Oreo balls while watching the Hallmark channel I am preparing and planning my goals for 2020.
In recent years, I have seen a lot of negativity and jokes in regards to making New Year’s resolutions but they are a great way to close out the year and prepare for success in the upcoming year. After all, is it not credited to Einstein that “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result”? Do you want something different out of this new year? Then you need to plan for it. Then you have to put that plan to action.
When I think about my goals for the New Year I try to make at least one goal for each of the following categories: Spiritual, Physical, Financial, Family Life, Work Life, Friendships, Home Improvement and what I call Self Improvement. After I have identified one goal for each area then I will set a plan and realistic time line for completing it. If my financial goal was to save a certain amount of money by the end of the year then I could plan to save an allotted amount each month to reach that goal. To make sure the goal is attainable I could create a monthly budget. I might realize while creating my budget that if I replaced my daily coffee house coffee with home brew I will easily meet my goal. However planning to be successful for that goal might mean that I need to prepare my coffee the night before or set my alarm 15 minutes earlier to make my home brew.
In project management when we complete a project we do an assessment called lessons learned. We look at the life of the project and document both the positive and negative experiences. In other words, what things worked well that we want to incorporate on future projects and what things do we need to change and re-evaluate before the next project. This assessment can be applied to making New Year’s Resolutions as well and help you in identifying and reaching your goals. For example, I want to work on my morning routine. In past years, I would plan a whole weeks’ worth of outfits on Sunday and iron them all. I got out of that habit and noticed that this past year I wasted time each morning standing in my closet thinking what I wanted to wear then stressing to get it ironed in time. Lesson Learned! One goal for this new year is to begin pre-planning my outfits for the week.
It’s also important to realize that if you don’t really care about the goals you set you will have no desire or motivation to reach them. “If you really want to do something, you will find a way. If you don't, you will find an excuse.” Zig Ziggler
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