Goals and New Year’s resolutions for 2018
At this time of the year, we often think about setting new goals for the year ahead. By the time, January has ended, many of those plans have not been thought of again and our resolutions have flown out the window. Often, we try to change too many things at once and end up not achieving anything new. This year, your goal should be to focus on one area at a time for more success.
The true measure of whether your goals have worked is when you look back at the end of the 2018 to review the year and see what you achieved. Did you accomplish what you set out to do at the beginning of the year? Starting with the end in mind can help you with all the aspects of your career and life that want to improve or change. So, let’s fast forward to 31 December 2018 and get started!
As its already one month into 2018, review the areas of your life that you were not happy with last year or where you did not achieve your goals. Some of these areas might be:
- Career
- Personal
- Sport and Leisure
- Friendship
- Health
- Family
- Community
- Financial
- Spiritual
This year, what are the areas of your life or career that you want to change or improve? To make some simple changes, work through the following steps –
- Start with a simple goal to work on that you can achieve with a little planning. This might be something like going for a walk outside at lunchtime to get fresh air so you can refocus on what you need to do in the afternoon.
- Identify the action that you need to undertake to achieve your goal. This might be to set a timer on your phone each day to remind you to leave your desk at 12noon each day.
- Write down your goals using the SMART framework –
- Simple – Go outside to enjoy the fresh air each day at lunchtime
- Measurable – Each day
- Action – go outside
- Realistic or Relevant – at lunchtime
- Time – starting next week and I will do this for 3 weeks by keeping a diary
- Practice this action for 3 weeks so that you replace the old behaviour with a new action and it starts to become a habit. Committing to a goal for at least 3 weeks helps to integrate your new behaviour as part of your routine.
- Once you feel you have this goal underway, think of a new goal that you want to achieve. Follow the same steps until you have this underway.
- At the end of 3 months review your progress and make adjustments if needed.
On a bigger scale, think about your career and where you are now. Have you achieved all that you wanted to do?, or has your career taken you down a path that surprised you?
In a series of articles this year, I am going to help you focus on developing your talent so that your career is not disappointing, and you are able to achieve all the goals you hoped for when you started work. To be successful in your career you need to give it important focus on a continual basis and leave some things behind that are not suiting you anymore. In the meantime, consider this quote:
If you don’t know where you want to go, then it doesn’t matter which path you take.
Alice in Wonderland
Dr Janene Piip
Talent Consultant and Career Practitioner
Australia
www.janenepiip.com.au
