My Biggest New Year's Resolution and 5 Ways to Keep It: Make at Least 10 Professional Contacts in 2009

I suspect like a lot of individuals, I've not had a lot of luck with New Year's resolutions. For a number of year's I've made lofty goals of one type or another, only to see my New Year's resolution crash and burn after anywhere from a few week's to a few months. I originally thought my biggest new year's resolution for 2009 would involve making at least 10 new friends, but I realize that I don't necessarily crave new friends any more than I particularly crave old friends. What I believe I really want to devote some time to is nurturing at least 10 professional contacts in 2009, because there are times when I need to ask questions and do it with someone who doesn't treat knowledge like it is privileged information. These professional contacts don't need to be in Italy and they don't need to be physical contacts. That would be nice but I can probably be mentored just as well over the internet as I can over a cup of coffee.

So there you go: my biggest new year's resolution and 5 ways to keep it: make at least 10 professional contacts in 2009. But how do I go about achieving said goal? According to an online article on BBC.com, lots of folks will make it out of the blocks on 1 January with the intention of maintaining their new year's resolutions. And lots more will cease their efforts before the month is even over. That does not bode well for achieving a goal. Especially when it's my goal.

Be that as it may, the first of steps in achieving my goal is to WRITE IT DOWN. According to GoalsGuy.com, this can be as simple as writing down answering the following:

- What you specifically want to achieve?

- Why this achievement is so important?

- Who will help you achieve your resolution?

- How do you plan on accomplishing your resolution?

- When, on what date will victory be claimed?

On the surface this looks easy: For example, the question "What you specifically want to achieve?" and "Why this achievement is so important?" are easily answered. I already told you the first answer - I want to make at least 10 professional contacts in 2009 and this is an important goal because I want to become a better writer. The WHO, HOW and WHEN make things a little more complicated. Because if I had the answers to those, I reckon I wouldn't need to have a new year's resolution in the first place!

Quirkology.com points out that men need a whole different approach to achieving new year's resolutions. In particular they underscore the importance of SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time based. So for example when it comes to my goal of developing 10 professional contacts in 2009, the SMART approach for me would be to aim for one solid contact per month. I think that is specific, measurable achievable realistic and time based. I think over the course of 1 month I can meet someone on a professional forum and nurture enough of a rapport that won't make me seem like I'm stalking the individual if I send him/her more than 1 e-mail.

I also think by allowing myself to be S.M.A.R.T. I can focus on other subgroups of my goal: specifically what questions to ask and how to measure my progress based on the feedback I receive from these contacts. So -- to simplify things -- my remaining steps for achieving my goal are easily satisfied by the steps in SMART.

What I see that I'm missing is WHERE I will make these contacts. I believe a good source for me is on RYZE.com. RYZE.com is a professional contacts forum (you can read about RYZE by clicking here). That at least is a start. Hopefully with that as my starting point I can make other in-roads with other professional groups that I've yet to discover.

If I was in the United States there would probably a more varied assortment of groups to physically get involved in. In Italy - at least here in Southern Italy, I've yet to find them. But it's early still. I still have until the first of January!It's not impossible to achieve your New Year's resolution.Most people start their New Year's resolution off with a BANG but end with a whimper.Most New Year's resolutions peter out before January even comes to a close.If you follow the S.M.A.R.T approach to achieving your New Year's resolution, you can reach your goal in smart bite-size steps.www.goalsguy.com