New Year, New Goals

One of my favorite quotes is from a book called Do Hard Things.  If you always do what you've always done, you'll always get what you've always got.  Seems like common sense right?  But for some reason it seems I always get stuck in the same routine and performing the same tasks but I expect change.  If what I was doing before wasn't working, why would it now?

I guess this is why people make New Year's Resolutions.  At the start of every year, people think of changes they want to make in their lives and try to follow them as long as possible, usually lasting only a few weeks or months before they forget about them.

 

So this year, I am going to be making some major changes in my life but they won't be "New Year's Resolutions" because they are changes that will help me reach goals for the upcoming year.

Over the next few weeks, I am going to be evaluating this past year and looking at what I want to do/accomplish next year.  By setting tangible goals, the smaller changes I make in my daily life will not only remind me of my overall goals, but hopefully they can help serve as check points reminding me that I am on the right track as long as I  follow them.

So if you wish to do the same, you should look at the following categories:

• Health
• Friends
• Family
• Business/Work
• Personal
• Travel
• Income
• Savings
• Giving
• Service
• Spiritual

Think about this past year and think about what went well and what didn't go well this year in each of the categories.  After writing these down, think about what you want to see stay the same and change in the upcoming year.  This will better prepare you for making your goals.

After you have decided on your goals for the new year, make a list of how you will get there.  This could include changes in your lifestyle, additional actions you may need to take, or mindsets you need to change.

In any case, once you know where you going, it is much easier to figure out how to get there.

By the way, if you want a more detailed approach, Chris Guillebeau's blog is where I first learned this method..

How to:

I promise I will actually write something myself soon instead of linking to what other people have to say but until then ever wonder how to be unremarkably average?