A new year.

January 2, 2012 ← Back to home

Every year, people make "new year's resolutions" to accomplish something, finish something, or do something to improve their life. I am usually one of those people too. Lose Weight, Save Money, Exercise More, Eat Less, Go to Europe, Get in Relationship, etc... Well, one of the few things I have learned in corporate america is metrics... how do you measure your goals, are they specific? There is a term called, SMART goals Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound. So let's take one of the typical goals, save money. Specific, I will save $10 a week. Seems trivial, but that will be $520 dollars at the end of the year. So moving on to those goals, let's see, Specific - $10, Measurable, I should have $520 at the end of the year, Attainable, as it stands now, yes, it should be pending the economy tank even more, Relevant, well, that is more business related than anything else, so sure, it is relevant and time-bound well, we can do a few things for time-bound. We can say each month I should have $40, which only is $480 at the end of the year, or we can do at the end of the year I should have $520, or I could make it shorter, this week, I should have $10 saved. That is the easiest and most realistic. People tend to stretch the goals out too long and they procrastinate because of it, so set short-term immediate goals that will lead to a bigger goal. Every year I want to write a book... and I get ideas, outlines, concepts, even a few chapters written and then.... a new video game comes out, I get involved in hot yoga or jiujitsu, I'm busy at work, etc... it is priorities that stop me. We all encounter hurdles, laziness, tired, sickness, etc... but don't always fight them, sometimes it is important to take a break. But what is more important is to get back after that break. Set a time limit of that break. I'm going to take today off... or I'm sick, and you are out for a week, but when you are better, get back to it. Momentum is everything from my experience. So let's see what are my resolutions?

Write that book!
Be able to do 100 pushups
Run a 5k, 10k, and 1/2 Marathon
Pay off remaining debt, excluding mortgage. :-)

Those are my immediate ideas... but let's see how I am really going to do that.

Write that book About what? who's the audience, why am I writing it? What information do I want to share? When do I want to finish it?

Do a 100 pushups? I did 25 just now, so 100 is definitely attainable. I'm thinking I'll have that done by March 1. So there is my time-bound.

Running... Pay of debt... I'll get to those... :-) Let's stay focused on my top 2. hehehe

Ok, happy new year and what are your goals/resolutions? Let's be accountable to each other.

Thanks for stopping by.