The New Year has arrived, and for most people, this is the most appropriate instant of the year to stop and evaluate your goals and objectives for the next 12 months. You enthusiastically look ahead, resolving to make grand improvement in all areas of your life.

In this edition I am going to share some helpful ideas to help you turn your hopes, wishes, and dreams into your future reality.

Goals and buildings have several characteristics that are very similar. If a building is engineered properly, and built with structural integrity; when the storms blow, the building stands; when the earth shakes, the building stands. If a building lacks that structural integrity, the storms force is likely to reduce it to rubble. Your goals are the same way. If they are engineered with the proper dynamics in place; when adversity strikes, your goals will stay clear; when the unexpected happens; you will adapt and move closer to your objective.

There are Five Characteristics of Effective Goals, that if you follow to a tee, you are guaranteed to come out ahead.

Your Goals Must Be:
1. Meaningful to You

This can seem understandible , but it is important to evaluate. Is the wants you are setting really important to you? Or is it really more important to your manager, or your company, or your friends or spouse, or are you simply bending to social pressures. For you to achieve a desire in any area of your life, it is vital that you are perfectly clear why that outcome is important to you and why you will be willing to generate the sacrifices needed for its accomplishment.

2. Specific and Have a Due Date

This is the main difference between your dreams and wishes, and your goals. To transform something from a wish to a target you positive need to become defined about what you are setting out to accomplish, and contruct the commitment to complete your task by a certain date. There is a big difference between wishing that you were debt free of price , and setting the target to have zero credit card debt by November 1st. For a target to be targeted, it must have a quantifiable number attached to it. A wish is to loose weight; a desire is to loose 15 pounds by May 1st. A wish is to increase your sales; a target is to increase your sales by 17%. A wish to stop smoking; a goal is to smoke ZERO cigarettes after January 30th.

3. Right Size for You

Your goals absolutely need to be large enough to cause you to stretch, while being small enough that you really believe in your head and heart that you may accomplish it. When asked, most everybody describe their goals as needing to be attainable. While that is partially true, if a person simply sets out to achieve attainable goals they are likely to achieve far less than they are capable.

4. Written Down

By writing down your goals, you are accomplishing three important things at once. You are grasping the first step in making a physical manifestation of an intangible thought. By simply grabbing out a piece of paper and writing down your goals you are acquiring them from a thought to a physical form. Secondly, you are putting a distinct, non negotiable number down that you are no longer able to change as your situation changes. If your goals are not written down you have much more emotional flexibility to change them when you find yourself falling short of your original target. Lastly, this is a crucial exercise in holding you accountable. When your goal is written down it becomes more real to you, and you will hold yourself much more responsible to seeing its accomplishment.

5. Posted for Review

I have been told that character is following through on a commitment long after the enthusiasm of the moment has passed. All too fairly often all the people sacrifice what they want most for what they want now. When your goals are posted for review you are confronted with the commitment you made several times throughout the day. This is a very powerful way for your goals to become committed to memory as well as a visual tool to help keep you on track when you are being tempted to give into your wishes of the moment.

Take a couple of moments today and review your commitment for the following year. If youve forgotten about your new decades resolutions already, its not too late. Get recommitted to them today!

Be FREE!

Eric Plantenberg