Well, here we are in 2009. We have survived another year and are in the midst of an economic recession. As with any new year, a lot of people are looking back on 2008 and setting their goals for 2009.
Setting goals is a very easy thing to do. A goal can be anything from trying to double the amount of revenue your business generates to simply blogging more frequently on your personal blog at home. Goals are a great thing for everyone on any level…it gives us something to look forward to, something to attain, something to provide us with a sense of accomplishment. So why do many people look back on their goals year after year with a feeling of bewilderment trying to figure out what went wrong?
The thing that many people forget is that setting a goal and putting a plan in place to achieve that goal are two totally different things. Goals require one big thing that many of us are unwilling to grasp: A change in your current lifestyle. You are not going to get to where you want to go by continuing to live the way you are now. This is where people most often will break down because it is very difficult to make that change and break out of your comfort zone.
The below scenario is a perfect example on two different ways to set goals:
Say we have two people with very similar physical characteristics who both want to lose 20 lbs in 2 months.
The first person’s plan to achieve that goal is to eat less food and exercise more frequently. Pretty good plan, right? Wrong.
The second person’s plan is to exercise at a local YMCA on Monday, Wednesday and Friday directly following work from 5:30-6:30 each of those days. They are going to eliminate all soda and fast food consumption.
Which person is more likely to be successful in achieving their goals? If you said the second person, you were correct!
Why? Because the second person took the initiative to put a plan in place. While that plan was not as detailed as it could have been say if they had actually put together the work out plan or planned each of their meals for the week, it still involved a plan for a specific lifestyle change.
It can be very easy to say you are going to do a lot of things, but it is those who actually put the plan in place and change their lifestyle that will be successful. Please remember when setting your goals to spend as much or more time developing your plan to achieve those goals as you spent coming up with them. If you make the necessary lifestyle change, in 2010 you will look back on 2009 with a great sense of accomplishment.
Let’s make it a great 2009!
