Ask Maynard: How Can I Achieve My Goals Next Year?

A new year is upon us, and for many of us that means thinking about what we want in the year ahead and making resolutions to get there. The problem is, we usually fail in this area. Research shows only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s resolutions. That’s sad!

But it’s not all that surprising. Most of the time we’re set up to fail on these promises because we dream of succeeding at one small thing, but we don’t commit to a whole lifestyle that will help us achieve what we set out to do.

Creating New Year’s resolutions that we can actually deliver on requires a lot more heavy lifting upfront. It mandates truly reflecting on where you are and where you want to be.

Every year I do a full assessment of everything going on in my life. I then think about what would make me really proud to achieve by the end of the year. I break my life into categories (work life, home life, etc.) and then subcategories (relationships, family, health) and ask myself what would wild success look like in each of those areas. I prioritize the categories and over time, the priority order has changed. For example, working on maintaining my health has taken on more precedence in recent years. Once I have the goals prioritized correctly I go through and ask what success would look like in each category and then try to commit to that goal by detailing what I will start, stop and continue doing to get there.

Once done, I don’t put this document in a drawer and ignore it. I look at it every week so I can stay connected to it and be inspired by it.

Getting all that you want out of the year and your life requires a serious approach. Here’s the tool I use to achieve it.

THE NEW YEAR’S WORKSHEET

PERSONAL LIFE: What would success look like next year? How am I going to get there? 

Relationships: What key relationships am I attempting to grow and what would they look like?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What will I do to achieve this?

• Start:________________________________________________
• Stop:________________________________________________
• Continue:_____________________________________________

Family: What specific family relationships do I want to foster and how will I do this? ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What will I do to achieve this?

• Start:________________________________________________
• Stop:________________________________________________
• Continue:_____________________________________________

Health: How do I want to maintain or improve my health and how will I achieve this?______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What will I do to achieve this?

• Start:________________________________________________
• Stop:________________________________________________
• Continue:_____________________________________________

WORK LIFE: What do I most want to accomplish in my work life next year?

What will I do to achieve this?

• Start:________________________________________________
• Stop:________________________________________________
• Continue:_____________________________________________

 GIVING BACK: How do I want to contribute next year?

What will I do to achieve this?

• Start:________________________________________________
• Stop:________________________________________________
• Continue:_____________________________________________

As always, please keep your questions coming. (Send me your questions in the comments and don't forget to upvote the ones you like best.)