How To Set New Years Goals

It happens every January. New Year's goal setting, otherwise knows as New Year's resolutions. It seems that most of us receive a burst of creative energy right after the holidays and begin to set lofty goals for ourselves. We resolve to lose ten pounds, change jobs, or completely change our lives.

What's wrong with us? Do we have some kind of strange masochistic propensities that lie hidden in our DNA all year long until January comes around? We must. It's a sorry fact that New Year's resolutions are generally short-lived if not completely disregarded by February. Are we doomed to and eternal circle of goal setting and failure?

Can we actually make goal setting for the New Year successful? Can we interrupt the chain of pitiful failure? Yes, the good news is that we can be successful with our New Year goal setting. We can succeed if we abide by a few simple steps.

In goal setting, the first thing you must do is pick goals that are believable and achievable for you. They have to be the right goals for the correct reasons. If you don't think that you can accomplish them, then you're doomed from the start. For example, if your goal is to lose 10 pounds this year and you don't think you can do it, then you've set yourself up for failure.

Effective goal setting has to include thought and deliberation. Think long and hard about what you want to accomplish. Make a decision that the goal you have chosen has meaning for you and you're willing to commit to accomplishing it.

Make your goals achievable but not so low that they lose meaning for you. Then again, don't set them so high that you become disheartened. This is a tricky area of goal setting. The answer is to break your goals down into smaller chunks that you can reach. For example, if you goal is to lose 10 pounds, then set a reachable goal of one or two pounds a week. This will help keep you motivated.

Another strategy for goal setting is to be specific. Set a date that you want to reach a specific goal and then work backward, breaking it down in to smaller chunks. If your New Year's goal is to "lose weight," then you're defeated before you begin. It is more effective to decide that you want to lose ten pounds by March 1st. Stating it this way makes the goal solid and credible to you. You're a good deal more likely to accomplish a specific goal with a time frame than a vaguely stated goal.

Write your goals down and post them, so that you see them frequently. This reinforces your goal setting. You might try standing in front of a mirror and saying your goals out loud each day. This also makes your goals a formal commitment. Don't give up. Goal setting can help us make positive changes in our lives if we follow a few easy rules.