As the days of 2009 begin to wind down, many of us will begin to contemplate those ever elusive New Year’s Resolutions for 2010. Some years I make a long list of things that I want to accomplish and some years I don’t even bother. However, what I have noticed is “failing to plan is a plan to fail.”
It is important to set goals because if you don’t know where you are going, how will you know when you get there? You have about three weekes to use this five step plan to outline your goals for the new year.
1. Decide what you want to acheive. Although there are probably a million things that you would like to accomplish in 2010, be reasonable and narrow your focus to those things that are attainable. Ideally, you should strive for between three and five items to focus on.
Example: Become more active as a Board member of the Chamber of Commerce
2. List the tasks that are necessary to achieve your goal. You should have some idea of the steps necessary to achieve your goals. Take the time to think about what action steps need to be taken beginning today to make your goals a reality before the end of next year.
Example: Attend meetings more regularly, establish relationships with Chamber members and join one Chamber committee
3. Assess your goals and create a monthly to-do list to ensure you will have achieved the goal by the end of the year. Breaking your goal into monthly manageable pieces will take the pressure off you from feeling like you have to do everything at once. It will also provide regular benchmarks for you to track your progress. If you get off track or achieve more success than imagined, you will be able to reevaluate your to-do for the following month.
January: attend Board meeting, attend monthly networking event, attend Membership Committee meeting
February: attend Board meeting, take one member to lunch, attend New Member Orientation
4. Go a step further and create weekly tasks. You may not want to make your weekly task list too far in advance because it will vary each month. However, at the end of the previous month or the beginning of the month; you should assess your overall goals and your monthly to do list to create weekly tasks.
January week 1: recover from the holidays
January week 2: attend January Board of Director’s meeting
January week 3: attend Friday night mixer
January week 4: attend Membership Committee meeting
5. This should provide a good guide for you to achieve the goals you have set for 2010. However, there is one final thing that you must do: make sure your goals are SMART – Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely.
Want to know my goals for 2010? Visit my blog at lakeshawomack.wordpress.com… on January 1st
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