Goal-Setting for Dummies

For most people, January is time for resolutions and goal setting for the New Year. Personally, I don't like to call them resolutions, but rather yearlong goals that provide me a finish line to strive for.

Though January is a common month for resolutions, goals can be set at anytime during the year. All you need is some quiet time and a pad of paper.

The first thing you need to do is brainstorm all of the things you want to do that year. Write these down in one long list. Be creative, be crazy. Do you want to learn Spanish? Rock climbing? Maybe travel to India? Write it all down!

Afterwards, go through the list, paring it down to 5, at the most. Too many goals will make you feel overwhelmed and quit all together. Most importantly, keep these goals realistic. Don't say, "Pay off $20,000 of credit card debt" when you only make $30,000/year. You'll only stress out, aggravate yourself and give up quickly.

When I sat down a few weeks ago, I came up with over 10 items that I wanted to do this year. Considering my work schedule and being the main caretaker of two kids, this was too much. I scratched out any goals that were impossible because of the limitation of my schedule. That brought the list down to six. After much soul searching and consideration, I brought my list down to 4 goals for the year, one in each section of my life (personal growth, work, financial, family).

Next, you should expand those goals to include detailed information:

Ultimate Goal w/ Specific Numbers -

Things to do to reach it

Specific checkpoints to compare my results

Yes, I know it's bordering on anal-retentive, but without some planning, goals are worthless words.

For example, let's say that you want to pay off a credit card. Your goal planning would look like this:

Goal - Pay off Credit Card

To Do - Pay $50 more than minimum payment each month, dump yearly bonus into credit card and not charge anything else.

Checkpoints - By June 1st, I will have paid off half of the credit card balance and by December 31st, it will be paid off completely.

Easy, huh? Yes, planning is easy to do, but having the stubbornness to stick to it is the hardest part for most people. That means sticking to your guns and not undermining your progress by whipping out your credit card to pay for the latest and greatest electronic gadget.

Of course, we're all humans. There are moments when we slip up and make mistakes. Though you may feel like giving up, it's not the time to throw in the towel. Accept your mistake, tweak your goals and get on with your life.

Goals are easy to make, but can be hard to reach. It takes time and diligence to follow thru to reach your goals, but reaching them will make you feel 100% better. So get out a pad of paper and start planning!