Set New Year’s Goals, Not New Year’s Resolutions

Today and Monday we return to one of my favorite topics setting goals to grow

Each year millions of people resolve to change their life in the next twelve months. They resolve to lose weight, stop smoking, reduce debt, and scores of other good ideas. Unfortunately, resolutions seem to fade within a month. Most people cannot remember more than one or two of them by March. That’s why I prefer goals. Eleanor Roosevelt was attributed as saying “Goals are dreams with a deadline.”

Difference Between Goals and Resolutions

Why do we fail to achieve New Year’s Resolutions?  Writers and researchers cite various reasons:

• Making too many resolutions or unrealistic resolutions
• Surrounding yourself with temptation, but not with personal or social support
• Creating resolutions in the midst of emotion, but not planning action to succeed
• Failing to identify the factors that contribute to the behavior you wish to change
• Keeping the resolutions in your head and not writing them down and reading them

I believe the major difference between goals and resolutions involve the depth of our commitment and the action we dedicate to accomplishing the goals. We will discuss how assure success in our next post.

Roles in Which to Set Goals

I like Stephen R. Covey’s framework for looking at your life and setting goals. He provides a simple structure that allows you to identify the areas of your life you wish to improve and what you want to accomplish.

He used the term “Roles and Goals” in describing a method to implement the habit Begin with the End in Mind. 

• Roles:  refer to the our identities like mother, wife, manager, female, and Catholic
• Goals outline what you wish to accomplish for each role like increase my productivity by 10%. You can identify your goals by asking yourself “What is the most important things I can do in this role this year? This month? This week?

Take a few hours in the next few days to identify your roles and set your goals.

Monday we review how the GoalsWork model enhances chance that you achieve your goals