2011 – Now What?
Happy New Year Readers
OK it’s 2011 and it’s been 2011 for some time now (just over a week). So what now? Are we going to treat this year as any other? Are New Year’s Resolutions going to fizzle away by the end of the month? Well they do for many, that’s why gyms have great offers in January – to lock people in for the whole year. They know all too well that people are intrinsically lazy. Get them to sign on the dotted line and keep them locked in for the year, knowing all to well most people won’t return to the gym after the first month. Genius.
Forget the New Year Resolutions
Setting goals and taking action is not dependant on a calender month – so forget about New Year’s Resolutions. The problem with so many people (including myself at times) is setting goals shouldn’t be a ‘write-and-forget’ exercise. There needs to be some sort of appraisal – are you heading in the right direction? Are your goals actually something you want to achieve? Do you care enough about your goals to actually take action?…The list can go on.
So what do I do?
Goals can be categorised in different sections. Such as Financial, Personal, Physical, and so forth. And then you need to decide what you really want. Once goals are set the next step is to ensure they’re written down and MOST IMPORTANTLY you need to be aware of them every day. So many people write down goals then leave the paper in a drawer until they come across it by accident. If you’reading this and do that…STOP.
Focus
Really everything you do should in some ways support your goals, so you need to be aware of them constantly. You might not even be aware on how you’re going to achieve your goals. Sure there needs to be an element of realism (if your 50 and weigh 20 stones you probably won’t be gunning for a Gold Medal @ the London 2012 Olypics). So how do you achieve something you want but don’t know how to get there? That’s the million dollar Q.
Education
Back to that million dollar Q – every journey starts with a single step so in this instance it will be a case of learning more on how you’re going to achieve your goal. With information so easily and readily available over the internet, it’s a great place to start. But be warned though, amongst the likes of Wikipedia et al the Internet does have it’s fair share of snake oil merchants. So how do you know whether you’re getting the right information? Start with the basics such as market language. Every market has it’s own ‘language’. What do I mean by that? Take a forum as an example – let’s say you’re on a forum focussing on diets there will be a lot of shorthand when it comes to naming diets. Additionally, you might want to read up specific diets etc. Once you learn the specific ‘lingo’ of a particular market you’ll be better equipped to learn – to assist you in achieving your goal.
Words of Wisdom
Not my words – but worth mentioning – “There are no short cuts to any place worth going to”.
Good luck in your endeavours.
(I actually had no idea what I was going to write about – it was just a case of fingers to the keyboard).
Image Source – SJ Jagadeesh
