To expand upon that a bit, I printed out a couple of worksheets for myself. The first is:

Looking Back on 2015

1. Successes
2. Disappointments
3. Things I’ve learned
4. Places I’ve gone
5. Fun things
6. Miscellaneous thoughts

After I address those topics I think I’ll toss that one in the fireplace. A symbolic gesture signifying the end of the year and that it’s time to move on.

The second worksheet is:

Goals Worksheet 2016

1. Relationships
2. Spiritual
3. Health
4. Home
5. Business/blog
6. Personal development
7. Travel/fun

I have been spending time thinking about the things I want to accomplish in each of those areas of my life. I’ve jotted down some goals in each area and am going to fine-tune those a bit further and discuss some of them with David tonight. For instance, we need to be on the same page for travel goals.

Once I’ve got all my goals determined the next step is to decide how to implement them. Trying to do everything at once is a recipe for failure. I really like the idea of setting quarterly goals as explained in this video:

I’m going to try that this year and see if it helps me achieve more success in meeting my goals. One thing I am going to do is put a reminder of my quarterly goals in my planner at the beginning of each month. I may also set up some reminders to give me alerts on my phone calendar just to help me stay on track.

There are also phone apps which can help. I seem to do better if I don’t allow myself excuses for not doing something each day and can track my efforts. There are several apps for this, such as Daily Goals, Habit Tracker, and many others. Here is a good article describing several:

17 Best Tools and Apps for Building New Habits and Goals

I can’t recall the name but I used one for awhile that was simple and yet effective for motivating me to do certain tasks every day. At some point the app quit working and I deleted it. I’ve downloaded a couple of others and am going to decide which is best for me. If you use something like this I’d love to know which one and why you like it. Leave me a comment, please!

Finally, I am going to schedule a review period in my planner once a month to look back over my goals and evaluate how I’m doing.

My hope is that I can be part of that elusive 8% who actually achieve their New Year’s resolutions. I can always hope, right?

Happy New Year!