7 Tips for Setting Effective Goals and New Year's Resolutions in 2012

Thu, 5 Jan 12

Welcome back to another year in business! It's the beginning of a new year which means it is time to set your personal and professional goals or begin your New Year's resolutions for 2012. To help you plan for success with each goal or resolution we've combined some of the best tips for goal setting to apply to both personal and professional objectives...

1. Success is determined by your belief and passion towards a goal or target.
   Be sure to only set goals that excite you and that you see yourself reaching. If the goal itself is scary (ie a common New Year's resolution is to get fit  by joining a gym or by  eating healthier) then picture how great you will feel once the ideal target is reached, rather than how it will feel in the first days getting into a new routine. Remember it takes approximately 21 days for something to become a habit - that's less than a month before your goal fits in with natural behaviour!
2. Include the reasons behind your goals.
   This is similar to picturing how you will feel once a target is reached for the "scary goals". Don't just set goals for the sake of it. Think about what matters to you this year and what growth or change you need to have to be in a better, happy place.
3. Link each goal to your past and your present.
   Reflect on your past year and where you are now. Use past scores and events to benchmark your growth against in order for new goals to be realistic. Think about what goals you did and did not reach last year. Why did you have these results?
4. Be positive.
   Only set positive goals. Whether your an optimist or a pesimist, goals and resolutions should make you feel good and give you reason to be excited about making a change.
5. Link your short term activities to your long term goals.
   We have said this before, but now is the time to remove the 'clutter' from your day-to-day. If the majority of your day is not spent working towards your goals, its time to review your work-load and re-prioritise your time. For the business person, this is becoming as easy as a click of a button with opportunities such as ODesk allowing you to outsource the mundane.
6. Be SMART – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely.
   This goes back to the theory of goal setting taught in Universities around Australia. Although an old theory, this acronym still holds merit. For basic goal creation, it's hard to pass up.
7. Write your goals down, display them and look at them often.
   "Often" depends on how many goals you have, how urgent these are, your own personality and many other factors. Somewhere between once a week and once a month is a safe bet. As often as you need to remember each one on recall is a good rule of thumb. Once a day is great if you want to keep it front of mind and need to get out of the habit of working on activities that do not affect your goals.

ONE LAST TIP: By the end of January aim to have reviewed your past year and set your goals for 2012 (as you're already one month down and that means one less month to reach your targets!). There is no perfect number for the amount of goals you should set, they should instead be balanced between how many areas are important or of highest value to you and how many you can work towards without being overwhelmed. Too many will cause you to lose focus.

From the NCB, happy New Year and all the best for a successful 2012!

For more on goal setting we recommend:
http://www.flyingsolo.com.au/startup/setting-business-goals/effective-goal-setting
http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/goal-setting-tutorials/7-goal-setting-tips
http://www.articleflame.com/Art/1542/140/20-Goal-Setting-Tips.html

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