New Year’s Resolutions Are For Liars
Face it, almost no one sticks to their New Year’s Resolutions. We lie to ourselves. Often it results in lying to others as well. It’s really not healthy or productive.
Although we’re already halfway through January (where’s 2007 going?!?!) it’s still as good a time as any to look at our goals.
In fact, you should be assessing goals constantly. Goal setting isn’t a time-specific activity. You don’t have to set goals only at certain times – be it at the beginning of a new year, every quarter, every month, etc.
Steve Pavlina points out that setting goals is about improving your present day moment. In essence, you only live in the present moment. If setting a goal improves your present moment, and thinking about it later on improves that present moment, it’s a goal worth keeping.
With that mindset, why would you ever limit yourself to setting goals at a certain time of year? Why would you only do it infrequently?
Set big goals. Go for it. There’s no harm in doing so. Big goals will usually give you a more positive feeling than micro-goals because they’re more meaningful and impactful.
But break big goals into mini-goals. Many people fail to achieve their goals because they become too daunting, too unachievable, too long-term. Breaking goals into mini-goals provides you with digestible chunks that’ll be easier to handle.
It’s a combination of benefiting from the positive nature of big goals and handling the tasks at hand that need to be accomplished.
What you’ll discover is that the sum of the goal’s parts is smaller than the whole goal itself. And each mini-goal will provide more positive bang for its buck by being a part of something bigger.
This post is part of our Business Channel Theme Day on goals for 2007. Please check out the rest of the posts at Home Biz Notes.
Good post, Ben. I think you’re right on. Goals need to be seen as a means to an end to be workeable. Crossing off the individual goals isn’t rewarding other than being a step closer to the big-picture accomplishment.
Companies often force the lies by saying realistic goals are not ambitious enough…it’s not hard to find a companies that grow sales 5% each year, but demand goals and projections of 20% for the coming year.
Hi Ben,
I enjoyed your post. It was short sweet and to the point. I especially enjoyed the part about setting big goals. Man if we could dream bigger, and believe that we could accomplish the big stuff, we would be dangereous!
Thanks for your comments Sean and Darlene – much appreciated.
Darlene – I like your site, very interesting, important topic, niche and nicely focused!
Thanks Ben! I am looking to see who I can help out there in the big world beyond my current sphere of influence. I know there is need for career coaching. I have been doing it for years, and now with the advent of the blog, I am hoping I can touch more people!