Annual Goal Setting

I encourage people to take time each year to set their goals. Goals are not new year's resolutions. They surpass resolutions in staying power and success. Goals include deadlines, action plans, and accountability to others.

1 Choose a time: Each person selects the best time to set their annual goals. I choose the time between Christmas and New Year's day. I take the whole week off from work. I set aside 1-3 hours each day to seclude myself with my goals. The mind stalls at more than 1-3 hours, so I play or nap with my famil the rest of the day.

2 Roles and goals: I like Stephen Covey's idea of roles and goals. It ensures balance and improvement in every role in life. I've selected seven roles in my life: son of God, me, husband, father, son/sibing, Manager of Provo LDS Employment Resource Services, and Professional Speaker/Auther for GoalsWork Institute.

I recommend you take some time and define your roles in life. Remember to limit yourself to no more than seven! Stress, pressure, and failure accompany you if you have more than seven roles in life.

I work on 2 roles a day during the 1-3 hours I mentioned earlier. I finish all the roles by New Year's Eve. I review them as a set on New Year's Eve to preserve some sanity and balance for the coming year.

3 Set SMART Goals: I follow a simple process for each role. I save this year's Word document as next year's date (for example, 2008 Goals.docx saves as 2009 Goals.docx). I review my success and missteps for the 2 roles of the day. I set 1-3 broad goals for each role. I set SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Timely). I plan 3-6 actions I will do to acheive each goal for that role. I do somethings each day. Some each week. Some each month. Some only once all year. I draft this in my Word document.

4 Transfer to my calendar: When I'm done with all seven roles and reviewed them together, I enter the actions into my Outlook calendar. That preserves the time to work on my goals. I have to consciously schedule something on top of that action. To preserve my priorities, I've grown very good at saying "I'm sorry. I have another obligation at that time. Would XX by ok with you?"

I don't achieve all of my goals. I accept that. I prefer to schedule a little more than I can do. I don't beat myself up when I don't achieve all of them. I realize that I achieved more than if I set fewer goals.

I'll let you know how it went in my next blog. Later, I'll share how annual goal-setting transfers into monthly, weekly, and daily review and planning.

Good luck setting your own anual goals!