“The New Year stands before us, like a chapter in a book, waiting to be written. We can help write that story by setting goals.” Melody Beattie

“When it is obvious that the goals cannot be reached, don’t adjust the goals, adjust the action steps.” Confucius

Back in late August I set a goal to do 100 miles of hiking by the end of the year.  I wrote it down and downloaded an app to help track my progress.  Yesterday I finally completed this goal!  Two back to back trails at Babler State Park, the Dogwood and Woodbine, culminated this goal and set up a great finish to a busy 2016.

New Year’s Resolutions  

Defined: a Resolution is a firm decision to do or not to do something.  At the start of the New Year, this is generally a firm decision to lose weight, eat better, stop smoking, get in shape, etc…  Gym memberships skyrocket, Trader Joe’s gets a few more customers, and good intentions abound.  However, often resolutions do not have true meaning behind them, they are open ended and just give that feel good response when another asks you about them but then fizzle out after a few weeks.

Goals yield Results

Goals however, are concrete statements that promote a specific outcome.  A properly formatted goal can help you make direct, actionable progress toward achieving positive results and improving your life.  A goal can be segmented out, action steps created, and progress tracked to help monitor and evaluate your achievement.  While there is much written on goal setting and accomplishment, I just wanted to just share a few tips I have found useful in my efforts.

Tips for Setting Goals:

Make them SMART:  Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-based

Write them down! Take the SMART acronym above and write your specific goal, why you want to achieve it and what your end date is.  Write it in multiple places and put reminders in places you look at daily like your desk or bathroom mirror

Don’t set the date too far in the future, you’ll tend to lose focus and forget. Quarterly is a good timeframe for me

Track your progress.  There are many smartphone apps available that can help. The screenshots here from my 100 mile goal are from GoalTracker on Android

Only set 2-3 goals at a time, otherwise it is easy to get distracted trying to work on too many things at once

Don’t tell others about your goals (except maybe those closest to you).  Here is a great TED talk from Derek Sivers discussing this:

This New Year, forget the Resolutions, set Goals and achieve real results!

Thank You for Reading!