New Year, New Goals

Where did the year go? It seems like just yesterday I was bringing in 2011 and now we are only days away from 2012.  Looking back on 2011, I've accomplished a lot in my personal and professional life, and I can say that some of that success could not have happened had I not set goals for myself and kept track of my progress towards them.  

In September of 2010, I made a list of goals and posted them on my blog.  Some of these goals included getting out of credit card debt (which I did...a few months early!) and saving $1000 (I blew that out the water, saving $5000 in a year!). By putting my goals out for the world to see, I forced myself to be accountable.  No one wants to look like a failure in public (lol), so I had work to make progress in my goals so I had something to say when I did quarterly update posts.  These update posts gave me a chance to evaluate my progress to make sure my goal was feasible/realistic, and allowed me to re-assess my goals to see if my goals were still in line with my priorities and values.  Sometimes priorities change; when I went natural and was introduced to a thing called shrinkage, my length goals that I had when I was relaxed weren't important to me anymore as I was trying to achieve a voluminous puff or achieve maximum curl definition.

When setting my goals, I made sure to quantify wherever possible and build in a specific deadline.  There is a big difference between saying you want to "save money" and saying you want to "save $100 each month." In order to measure progress you have to have a way to compare where you are now with where you want to be, and without a specific number you want to reach or a time frame for achieving it, there is no way to measure progress. Not to mention, have you ever heard of a race with no finish line? It's hard to stay motivated without an ending point in sight!

To end this rant, I just want to leave you all with a few tips to start setting goals for the new year:

• Create specific, time-bound goals.
• Share your goals with others to help you stay accountable.
• Track your progress every few months to re-evaluate what you want and to renew your commitment to your goals.

Does anyone have any New Year's Resolutions or goals for 2012? Share in the comments!