So a new year is upon us and the the world has partied, churched, kissed, and watched the ball, peach, or what ever your city has dropped to signify that the past year is gone and a new year is here. I will go into this new year knowing that humans are creatures of habit and these habits have been forged over weeks, months and years. I also know it’s a bit foolish to think that all those past proclivities or faults that I harbor, have developed or indulged in 2011 can be suddenly washed away when the clock strikes 12, and a new year begins. The realist in me staunchly states “I am who I am and if you don’t like me or what I do then that’s a you problem”. This feels somehow wrong and trite. My inner optimist snaps back with a single phrase; New Year, New Possibilities. That single phrase is reassuring and frightening, but alas forward we march.
I did not make any resolutions this year, siting my abysmal track record of not accomplishing them, but I did set out some objectives. Objectives you asked? Take note of the definition.
From the Marriam-Webster dictionary, objective 2 a : something toward which effort is directed : an aim, goal, or end of action.After close consideration, it became clear that a resolution is not what I needed going into the new year, but a clear aim, a target an objective! I am very competitive, which means I like to keep score. You can ask anyone who really knows me, I hate to lose. I am not a sore loser just not a very good one. As a matter of fact, it really only matters if someone is keeping score, at least in my mind. There are instances when the score doesn’t matter such as love, forgiveness and patience. Yep, that’s about it. Don’t get me wrong keeping score is not my driving force in life but in this new year it was very important to me that I establish a target, thus making it easier to keep score. Keeping score will help me stay on pace.
My objectives encompass several areas of my life, spiritual, personal, and professional. I would like to share my list and steps I will be taking to achieve my objectives. In hopes that we can move together on this path of personal and professional improvement. I have used these steps in several areas of my life already and I know they work. I used these same steps to graduate from Florida State University after a horrible sophomore year and land a job at a billion dollar a year corporation.
I composed my list based on how I see my life structured. I have a spiritual life, a personal life and a professional life. So I wanted to pick things that could be measured, things that if accomplished would have a meaningful and long lasting impact on my life, and things that if not targeted would likely not get done.
My List
- Spiritually: Praise and Serve God more aggressively than I ever have
- Personally: automate my finances (especially investing and retirement saving)
- Personally: Invest more quality time with family
- Professionally: Increase Cash flow and productivity
Necessary Steps For Success
- Be honest with yourself
- In order to put together a good meaningful list, one must judge thyself. This is the most important step. It is very necessary that one looks at what needs to change or be addressed and determine if they are ready and willing to address that issue. If you are not ready to address a particular issue, then don't add it as an objective. It will only haunt you later when its time to keep score.
- Set attainable objectives
- One of the quickest ways to become successful at anything is to win at it. Quick meaningful wins are the best motivation to keep going. So if you set outrageous goals that will take a long time to accomplish, that decreases the likelihood of you being successful without proper planning. For this I suggest the K.I.S.S method; Keep It Simple Stupid. If you have long reaching goals setup smaller goals that can be evaluated and will lead to the ultimate objective.
- Stay focused
- This is the quintessential element to achieve success in any endeavor in life. Remaining focused in the face of distractions is the water to your success garden. Without focus, attaining objectives will not get the attention and essential time necessary for your goal to be realized. And achieving your goal will be virtually impossible.
- This is the quintessential element to achieve success in any endeavor in life. Remaining focused in the face of distractions is the water to your success garden. Without focus, attaining objectives will not get the attention and essential time necessary for your goal to be realized. And achieving your goal will be virtually impossible.
- Stay Positive
- I can not stress this one enough, STAY Positive. Surround yourself with positive but honest people. Exclude the yes man from the circle. He will ultimately do more bad than good. Push toward your objective. It’s your objective that you are pursuing so act like it.
- Learn from experiences and adjust accordingly
- Things in life rarely go 100% according to plan. That’s life, but when things go sideways you have to take time to learn from what went wrong with an eye for improvement. Once you can identify an error learn from it, then adjust your plan accordingly. If you did not get the results you wanted, ask a close friend to help you find the error in your ways. Hopefully you will realize your plan was too small to meet your objective and it will need to get bigger. You may realize your plan could use some scaling back. If you learn from moving forward, then that’s one thing you would not have known by standing still. You are better today than you were yesterday because of it.
Perspective Point:
There is not a magic bullet. Sorry, at least if someone has one they are not selling it. Trust me I have been looking for it. There are no shortcuts. If you want change, you have to put yourself in position, seize it when it comes or in position to force change to happen.
We have to take time out to invest in ourselves. If you want to reach your objectives in 2012, and become the person that you want to be in this new year, then it’s time to go to work. Along with success comes stress, resistance, stumbling blocks and potentially failure. But if learn from a misstep and don’t make that mistake again, then you still win. As with every New Year, there is a chance for New Possibilities.
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