January is considered an opportunity to start with a clean slate, a fresh start to approach the new year with renewed vigour and focus. A long standing tradition aligned to this is the task of setting new year’s resolutions, a list of desired goals and actions to achieve change across areas ranging from health and finance to relationships and self-improvement.

While this ideal of reinventing yourself is usually approached with immense enthusiasm as the new year kicks in, 90% of people will be back in default mode by the end of January, reverting to old habits and ways. This happens for reasons such as laziness, fear of change, greed, effort required, ignorance or disbelief that the change will really make a difference.

The problem with new year’s resolutions is that unless you are a businessman or a really ambitious person, most of us don’t measure or track these resolutions or goals.

“Resolutions are easily conjured in the mind, but unless you write them down and revisit it frequently, you won’t actually know if you are successful or not. You are simply day dreaming, speculating or engaging in a bit of wishful thinking.”

According to research performed by the Opinion Corporation and 24/7 Innovation in December 2008:

-  45% of people usually set new year’s resolutions
-  17% set resolutions infrequently
-  38% absolutely never set resolutions

It is also important to distinguish between goals and resolutions. Goals are specific, to the point and with a fixed deadline and outcome, whereas resolutions tend to be more about intentions, nice-to-haves and dreams.

To achieve your goals, the outcome needs to be measurable, specific and time-bound. This means that you really have to make changes and you need to track and monitor the goal to ensure you achieve the outcome. And most importantly, you have to be held accountable by someone.

In almost all businesses, organisations or professional teams, goals are set, tracked and reported on daily. The reason for this is that businesses recognise that you can only change what you can measure and review. But this power to effectively change habits and behaviours is accessible to individuals too.

-  Set S-M-A-R-T goals (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound)
-  Track it properly (it has to be written down)
-  Frequently review your progress and performance
-  Get someone to hold you accountable to your commitments

New year’s resolutions will only work, if you have a structured approach, the correct tools and support required. So when you set those 2010 resolutions, don’t forget to follow up, track and measure them too!

Online support for achieving your goals

LEAP in Life Coaching provides a free online self-coaching system called Gears of Life. See their website for more.