Being focused on what matters in 2010

New years eve, sat round the fire with a glass of champagne. My friends and family are discussing their resolutions for New Year. Some have been really diligent and written them down, others are making them up on the spot... So I suggested before we set the 2010 ones, that we take some time to look back at the 2009 ones to review: which had worked best and which hadn't...

Very few people in the room could even remember what they had expressed last year. I could remember all of mine. I was asked how I even remembered what they were, when they were set so long ago and so I shared this with everyone and if it works for you too, then I'd love to hear back.

Goals or Resolutions?

First of all I never set a resolution, for me it feels less likely to really happen than a Goal. A resolution conjures up the need to resolve to change and usually incites the: lose weight, stop smoking, be nicer, blah blah blah... whereas a goal for me feels like it has more substance and i take more time to word it carefully in order to achieve it. A Goal feels much more action orientated for me

Set enough to Stretch but not too many to overface

You can easily over face yourself with far too many or not stretch yourself with too few. My suggestion is at any one time have between 3 and 7 goals on the go. If you have 3, then they are likely to be very big demanding goals. If you have the maximum of 7, allow some smaller, more achieveable ones. During the year, when you achieve a goal, you can replace it with another so that over the course of the year, you can achieve much more than 7.

Focus on getting better at what you are already good at

Those of you familiar with Talent Dynamics already know that you have certain skills and talents that you are much better at and enjoy more. A suggestion of mine, to make your goals more achievable, is to have at least 50% of your goals as things that you are already good at and that you want to get even better at in 2010 - BTW, you are much more likely to achieve those ones and quicker. Its more fun to have those kinds of goals and they help to keep us in flow.

Keep them visible

I can remember mine because I keep them on my desk in front of me and read them often. Ask yourself when you go to bed at night 'how did i do today?' and when you wake up 'whats my focus for today?' These 2 questions can serve as your daily review on your goals. If they are visible you will always have them in your mind to achieve

Share them with others

If you have a Coach or Mentor, then you can share your goals with them and they can help monitor your progress and motivate you to keep achieving. If you dont have a coach (apart from maybe adding that to your goals list!) then you can share them with friends and family. Its amazing how others want to support you and you never know who in your immediate network may be able to help you out immediately (as I found with one of mine that I shared on New Years Day!)

Check how compelled you are to achieve them

There are 2 ways I do this for myself. Firstly, I read what I have written and notice how I feel about it. My gut feeling always tells me if I even want to achieve the goal - sometimes I can tell I have written a goal because I should do it and not because I wanted to. The 2nd way is to score each goal as to how motivated you are to achieve it out of 10. Be honest with yourself, if your motivation is less than 8, again, review this goal. Do you really want to achieve it? Are you even going to try?

and finally and in my opinion most importantly...

Focus and take some action every day

Focus is so important to achieve your goals. Whatever you and your team focus on is what will get done. Fact.

Each day decide what action you will take towards your goals and spend some time reviewing what worked and what didnt and how you can improve it for tomorrow. Sometimes its just taking that very first step thats the hardest, so make it a baby step and keeping taking baby steps until you feel ready to take a slightly bigger step. Rome wasnt built in a day remember...

Best of luck to you for achieving your goals this year. Have a fabulous 2010!