The New Year Brings New Goals
Well it’s that time of year again; time to implement your New Year’s resolutions. How well did that work out for you last year? If you failed or had difficulty accomplishing last year’s resolutions maybe the error was in how you stated or defined your goals rather than your personal fortitude in achieving those goals. Everything is the result of planning, or the lack there of, and planning starts with clear, precise objectives or goals. The manner in which we set our goals directly impacts our success or failure in achieving those goals.
First off, set realistic goals. It is fine to dream big, but setting too ambitious of goals can set you up for failure before you even start. If a particular goal is unobtainable from the start, what point is there in pursuing it? This can lead to a self-fulfilling, defeatist attitude that can creep its way into other areas of your life.
Be sure to set challenging goals for yourself. Challenges can bring out the very best in us. We find our hidden strength and talents when confronted by a challenge and it is in the face of adversity that we define who we are as a person. Challenges provide the environment to drive us beyond what we thought was possible and help to coalesce our personal fortitude.
Set goals that are specific and quantitatively measurable. How do you measure success if you don’t first define what success is? If you want a new job, define exactly what job you want. If you what to lose weight, define exactly how much weight you want to lose. If we set ambiguous goals, we get ambiguous results.
Assign deadlines for each your goals. When a goal has no deadline for completion, we often procrastinate on working towards that goal. If we procrastinate long enough the situation begins to seem hopeless to us, we give up and we never achieve that goal. Additionally, do not set a “by the end of the year” deadline for all of your goals. The result of doing so is much like cramming for an exam; it adds unnecessary stress and generally doesn’t end well.
Prioritize each of your goals in order of importance/need and in any possible sequential order if necessary. Think about it this way; you need a roof over your head but you should build the walls first so that your roof has something to sit upon and before you build your walls, you need to properly set the foundation so that it will support the weight of the walls and the roof. By prioritizing our goals, we see where and when to apply our efforts into achieving all of our goals.
Lastly, put all of your goals on paper. There is something about seeing your goals written down on paper that makes them more real, almost mandatory. Writing down your goals is in some aspect a personal contract with yourself to strive as best you can to improve on who you are. They will serve as a daily reminder of your aspirations and as a source of inspiration throughout the year. Additionally, there are very few things as motivating as crossing off a personal goal from your list once it has been achieved.
So if you have already set your New Year’s goals, do they follow these simple guidelines? If you haven’t set your goals yet I hope these guidelines help you to do so soon. In either case, I and the other instructors at Elite Training Center wish each of you have a Happy New Year that brings with it the realization of each of your own goals and dreams.
Instructor William Green
ECCE·EGO·MITTE·ME
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Elite Training Center
1628 South Pacific Coast Highway,
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
(310) 543-1600
www.elitetrainingcenter.net
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