Now is the time to set those New Year's Resolutions. Whether you believe in them or not, it is a perfect time to sit down and reflect on the previous year and set new goals for the year to come. Now that you have a little more time on your hands and whilst you are on holidays relaxing, think about what went well and what you could have done better last year.
These goals must line up with your values, beliefs and priorities you have in life. Some areas you may consider are Health, Finances, Spiritual, Personal Development, Career and Relationship. Now I encourage you to look at your priorities in each one of these categories, and I encourage you to consider how Health may have an impact on all of these areas that you want to improve. I certainly believe if you have your health then you will have riches in any of those areas. Do you think if you have more energy and focus, you will be more capable of advancing your career and finances? Do you think if you have more confidence you will have better relationships with your family, kids and spouse? If you answered yes to these questions, then go through this step by step guide to developing your health and fitness goals.
1. BE SPECIFIC - specific, significant, stretching
What exactly do you want to achieve? The more specific your description, the bigger the chance you'll get exactly that. S.M.A.R.T. goal setting clarifies the difference between 'I want to be a millionaire' and 'I want to make €50.000 a month for the next ten years by creating a new software product'.
Questions you may ask yourself when setting your goals and objectives are:
- What exactly do I want to achieve?
- Where?
- How?
- When?
- With whom?
- What are the conditions and limitations?
- Why exactly do I want to reach this goal? What are possible alternative ways of achieving the same?
2. MEASURABLE - measurable, meaningful, motivational
Measurable goals mean that you identify exactly what it is you will see, hear and feel when you reach your goal. It means breaking your goal down into measurable elements. You'll need concrete evidence. Being happier is not evidence; not smoking anymore because you adhere to a healthy lifestyle where you eat vegetables twice a day and treats only once a week, is.
Measurable goals can go a long way in refining what exactly it is that you want, too. Defining the physical manifestations of your goal or objective makes it clearer, and easier to reach.
3. ATTAINABLE - agreed upon, attainable, achievable, acceptable, action-oriented
Is your goal attainable? That means investigating whether the goal really is acceptable to you. You weigh the effort, time and other costs your goal will take against the profits and the other obligations and priorities you have in life.
If you don't have the time, money or talent to reach a certain goal you'll certainly fail and be miserable. That doesn't mean that you can't take something that seems impossible and make it happen by planning smartly and going for it!
There's nothing wrong with shooting for the stars; if you aim to make your department 2 times as efficient this year as it was last year with no extra labour involved, how bad is it when you only reach 1.8 times? Not too bad...
4. REALISTIC - realistic, relevant, reasonable, rewarding, results-oriented
Is reaching your goal relevant to you? Do you actually want to run a multinational, be famous, have three children and a busy job? You decide for yourself whether you have the personality for it, or your team has the bandwidth.
If you're lacking certain skills, you can plan trainings. If you lack certain resources, you can look for ways of getting them.
The main questions; why do you want to reach this goal, what is the objective behind the goal, and will this goal really achieve that?
You couldthinkthat having a bigger team will make it perform better, but will it really?
5. TIMELY - time-based, time-bound, timely, tangible, trackable
Time is money! Make a tentative plan of everything you do. Everybody knows that deadlines are what makes most people switch to action. So, install deadlines, for yourself and your team, and go after them. Keep the timeline realistic and flexible, that way you can keep morale high. Being too stringent on the timely aspect of your goal setting can have the adverse effect of making the learning path of achieving your goals and objectives into a hellish race against time - which is most likely not how you want to achieve anything.
*Disclaimer: Individual results vary based on agreed goals. Click here for details.
