Great Starts for 2008 - Use your very own GPS

Some more thoughts on your Goal Setting as 2008 gets underway:
According to a recent study of 60,000 people, only 77% of their New Year Resolutions survived the first week of the New Year; one month later, only 55% made it through the first 4 weeks. Another study showed that a mere 15% of those who make Resolutions manage to keep them at all. Do you see yourself in these statistics?

Perhaps that first draft of New Year goals is just too vague or too broad. “Exercise more”, “Eat healthier foods”, “Find a new job”, are all great ideas. However, they don’t provide the clear details that your inner GPS, your mind, needs in order to achieve them. Just like the GPS in a car, your mind needs a clear understanding of where it is and where it needs to be so that it can get you from where you are to where you want to be. “Work out 2 times a week during the months of January and February”, “Shop at the Farmers’ Market once a month”, and “Apply for 2 jobs per month at companies on my target list” are much clearer and action-oriented.

I've mentioned SMART goals before, the process of assigning important details to your goals, making them Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-based. That’s only one method of many to get moving in the right direction.

Here’s another way discussed in a workshop I helped conduct last week for emerging women leaders:
First clarify your vision – start out with that Big Hairy Audacious Goal (“BHAG”, a concept first coined by author Jim Collins), one that is long-term, inspires you to action and is perhaps somewhat outrageous.
Second, write it out, down to the last detail so you have an even clearer picture in your mind of what it looks like.
Next, start breaking it down into manageable chunks, listing the most obvious things that need to take place.
Review one more time and break those down even further until you have a list of short-term goals that you see as do-able in the near future.
From there, determine the action steps needed for each short-term goal, assigning a due date to each step. These tasks should be small enough to be completed in a few hours.
Note these in your calendar and keep yourself on track, always moving forward. Let a friend in on your plans so they can help hold you accountable.

Set yourself up for success this year by remembering your internal GPS. Make those resolutions, turn them into specific goals and create the action steps needed to see them through. Check them off as you go along, enjoy your achievements, and by the end of December, you’ll have had a terrific 2008!

Post your thoughts and success stories for keeping your New Year resolutions intact.