The new year is just around the corner, so of course people are thinking of resolutions.  I’m not big on resolutions because I don’t think it works for me to make a goal simply because it’s a new year. So I don’t make new year’s resolutions, but I often make goals, and after all, that’s what a resolution is, isn’t it? It’s a goal.  So let’s talk about the smartest way to make a goal and fulfill it.

Don’t make a resolution you can’t keep.

Often people make huge resolutions that sound impossible and set themselves up for failure. Rarely do these big hyperbolic resolutions work, the write 1 billion words that  fell far short and became an impossible task. The read 300 books goal that wasn’t possible without that becoming your full time job. Though sometimes you never know, when I heard of the 300,000 step resolution I wasn’t sure it was possible, but that goal was reached over a month early. (Each of these were real resolutions)  Pick something realistic, think about your goal and what you would need to do to achieve it.

Resolve to enrich your life.

Often resolutions when you think about them won’t make you really happy, they won’t change your life much, but a good resolution will.  One of my latest work goals has been to make sure that I got this column out every week.  I kept telling myself I wanted to do this, but didn’t. It wasn’t till I made it a clear goal that I got myself truly motivated. Blogging for me is enriching. It helps boost my site rank in google (google hates static pages, which is why I tell all of my customers that adding a blog to their site is a great idea) and it lets me think about my own business practices and fix what I’m doing wrong and figure out what’s working for me.  It’s a great tool for self analysis. Plus it helps put a personal voice on my page.  Considering I’m a self employed and self run business, that personal touch is a selling point.  These posts you get to know me.

Make a plan.

A goal isn’t a goal without a plan. You need to know what is preventing you from achieving this goal and what you need to do to be successful. For my blogging goal I needed a plan.  The last time I made this goal I thought I would just write a column a week, and that worked for two weeks, then I got busy. This time I wrote a few posts to start, built a facebook page so I could spread the blog posts more, and put the blog in my monthly agenda, same time that I pay my bills.  Now twice a month I check how many posts I have, and if I don’t have at least three I start writing.  This way I will never go a week without a post. Plus since I do it after paying the bills it’s a bit of a treat after a task I don’t like.

Forgive yourself if you fail.

Many resolutions fail because when we start to fail we feel defeated and give up. I have tried this blogging habit a few times, and when I failed it was hard to go back, I had the idea “Well I missed two weeks, no one is going to notice if I miss one more,” and before I knew it I was two months without posts. Swallow your pride when you fail, forgive yourself, and get back to the goal. Make a new plan, evaluate why you failed, and learn from the process.  Remember what your grade school teachers told you, every failure is a lesson, learn from it.

What will your news year’s resolution be? Did you succeed with last year’s?