set your new year's "goals"

As you enter into the New Year, have you thought about what your goals are for 2010? What are the things you want to accomplish this year? I don't want to talk about your resolutions because I don't believe in New Year's Resolutions but I absolutely DO believe in goal-setting. So, what's the difference, and why is one better than the other?

New Year's Resolutions are spur-of-the-moment decisions that are usually broken within the first two weeks of January and, in 90% of cases, by the end of January. We can't expect to be able to make major life and behavioral changes for the entire year at the stroke of Midnight on New Year's Eve. It's just not logical. Enthusiasm will keep us going for a couple of weeks but then what?

On the contrary, goals are more thought-out; more planned, and have multiple steps to eventually achieve a desired end result.

Why do you think all the gyms are chocked full at the moment? Everybody's said their “resolution” is to lose weight and get in shape this year. However, I’m guessing that not many of them took any time to sit down and write a plan of how much weight they wanted to lose and what steps they were going to take to lose that amount of weight.

Check out all the cars at the gym this week and then do it again in a month's time…I'm sure you will see a difference!

So how do you go about setting some goals for yourself this year? Here’s how:

1. Make them VERY specific: Instead of saying, "I want to organize my entire house,” say "I want to organize the cupboards in my master bath by February 28.”

2. Have an action plan: It's very important to have a flexible action plan so you know how you're going to get from where you are to where you want to be…and so that you can adjust it according to life.

3. Review regularly: Glance at your goals daily and review them on a weekly basis so that you can make appropriate adjustments. A real easy way to do this is to stick the page up in your refrigerator or above your desk.

4. Focus on one MAJOR goal at a time: If one of your major goals is to get your life organized, then just maintain the other areas while you're working getting organized. If you try to focus on too many goals at once, you will burn out and nothing will get done!

For more organizing tips, visit my website: www.andreadekker.com