Yep - it is that time of year again. At midnight on December 31st we will mentally hit the "reset" button on life and believe that the new year is a new start or a "do-over." This time we are going to do better, be better and we WILL reach our goals. The first goal is typically to find a cure for the common hang over.
But seriously, the new beginning, the New Year, has always been special to me. I really do put a lot of thought into what I want the next year to bring me. The past couple of years we have gone to the special New Year's eve ceremony at Unity North. At the ceremony you burn the ideas, thoughts and feelings that no longer will serve you and you write your goals, as though they have already been achieved and you are thankful for them, in a letter to yourself. At the end of the year you receive your letter, which is always a nice surprise.
I received my 2008 letter last week and out of about 10 goals I had achieved more than half. My first reaction was disappointment and the fleeting thought that "this stuff doesn't work." But wait - I achieved more than half of my goals - um perhaps I need to set a goal to pay more attention to the positive in 2009.
That would be one of many goals/improvements I need to work on, but the one on top of my list, you can say my word for the year will be FOCUS.
A friend of mine who is also going to be in my small business support group told me that he read some Gartner stats that asked companies what their goals for the year were. At the end of the year they asked which goals were achieved. The fewer the goals the more likely that they were achieved. The magic number seems to be three. I have read many places that people can typically only hold three things in mind at a time, so it is probably best to focus on just three.
That should be easy enough -
1. Family
2. Health
3. Wealth
OK so those are three very all encompassing goals. But if I break them down to exactly what they will look like at the end of the year I see a family spending more time together, going on more journeys both closer to home and far away and working together to support our individual growth. I see us eating healthier and exercising more, getting and maintaining a healthy weight and staying active. I see my business stabilizing and growing as I work with my selected team and partners and the money that is being made is reinvested for further growth and stability as well as supporting the goals of the family.
OK so all those big goals have a lot of little goals and objectives and various moving parts, but if I stay focused on the bigger picture perhaps I won't get so tied up in all the little details and can move and stretch when needed.
The next ingredient to achieving goals is Faith. First you have to know what you want - that is most important. Second you have to have faith that you can achieve what you set up as your goals. If you do not have faith that it can happen, first you will not set goals that will really satisfy you, second you will not muster enough desire to keep you focused and without the right amount of desire you will never muster the will and discipline needed to stay doggedly determined no matter what.
So this year I think we are going to skip the Unity North ceremony and hold our own little ceremony in our yard. I think we will pack our letters away with the holiday decorations and "rediscover them" next year when it is time to decorate again. I am going to journal more - in a journal not so public, with each entry FOCUSED on my three goals for 2009.
Of course - there will be the public journaling here - so stick around for this next ride.
