Success with New Year's Resolutions

A New Year's resolution, in its most simple form, is a goal.

I have been helping businesses and individuals to achieve their goals for more than 25 years. I have witnesses some spectacular successes, both on a business and individual basis. And, regretfully, I have witnessed even more failures. Through these successes and these failures I have come to believe...and strongly believe, at that...success with any goal comes from having (1) SMART goals, and (2) the right support system. In this post, I will comment on the former, and tomorrow I will comment on the latter.

Many years ago, someone...I wish I could remember who...introduced me to the concept of SMART goals. SMART is an acronym for what goals must be to be successfully implementable.

Now, all kinds of consultants and coaches have tweaked what each of the five letters stand for. But, fundamentally the concept is that goals must have certain characteristics in order for there to be a high liklihood of succesful implementation.

I can't point to a definitive study that proves that by having the following five attributes a goal is more likely to be successfully implemented. But, my twenty five years of working with individuals and businesses on implementing their goals suggest that the following are a solid foundation:

S stands for specific. You will increase your likelihood of success with a goal, or a New Year's resolution, when it is specific. "I want to lose weight" is a generality. "I want to lose twenty pounds" is much more specific.

M stands for measurable. "I want to lose twenty pounds" is both specific and measurable. By making a goal measurable, you facilitate monitoring of progress. Without being measurable, how can you monitor progress and ultimate success?

A stands for action. The key to attaining any goal is action. So a well stated goal should include, or be supported by, the specific actions that will be taken to achieve the goal. So a better goal statement would be "I want to lose twenty pounds by exercising 30 minutes per day, every other day, and eliminating all manufactured snacks." Note how the inclusion of actions makes the goal come alive.

R stands for realistic. We are an incredible machine. And, when we ask our mind to do things that it believes are not possible, our systems will not support pursuit of the goal. Goals must be realistic...for you. They can be "stretch" goals, but they must be grounded in reality.

T stands for time-phased. In order for progress to be monitored, there must be specificity with regard to the date by which the goal must be attained. So continuing with the weight goal example, a better statement of the goal would be "I want to lose twenty pounds, by next December 31, by exercising 30 minutes per day, every other day, and eliminating all manufactured snacks throughout '09." By adding in the time dimension, we can chunk our goal down into smaller time periods, against which we can measure our progress. 20 pounds over twelve months equates to a little less than two pounds per month. Two pounds per month is realistic in that it is within what is considered to be a reasonable weight loss range for a healthy person.

So, are your planned resolutions (or goals) for '09 SMART?

Translate your resolutions into SMART goals and you will significantly increase the likelihood of succeeding with whatever are your goals. Get the right support for your SMART goals (the subject of my next post) and you will have dramatically increased the likelihood of your achieving your goals in 2009.

Coming Tomorrow: New Year's Resolution Support, the third post in the series Countdown to New Years. The six part series starts here.