Here we are again at the start of a new year and everyone is making their resolutions, well-intentioned and short-lived as they may be. It’s all too true that we start the year out with high hopes and goals, but we so often lose focus of those when we get sucked back into the normal routine right around January 3rd or so. But, that doesn’t mean that it doesn’t do any good to make resolutions. The first key is writing them down. I’m not sure where I got the quote, but it went something like “Goals are nothing more than dreams until you put them on paper.” The second key is keeping them in front of you regularly. The third is reviewing them from time to time to see where you’re at in accomplishing that goal versus where you started out. Think of it as a bar chart with a single bar. You start out at the bottom and as you get closer, you can darken in more of the bar.

That being said, I think that some of the most common resolutions for most people have to do with health and money. Everyone resolves to get in shape, workout more, eat healthier. And many people resolve to budget carefully, save more and even invest in something. These two resolution categories probably get the most attention because most people who celebrate the holidays spend a good couple of weeks eating lots of great food and spending lots of money on gifts, therefore those two things still weight heavily on their conscience and they want to get their bodies and their pocketbooks in shape.

So, what are your goals for 2006 and how do you plan on accomplishing them? If you’re going to make resolutions, don’t just blindly say that you’ll do this or that. Put it on paper, along with some form of game plan that will help you accomplish your goal. You’ll probably be quite surprised as to how much of a difference it makes.

So, now that I’ve written this, I’m off to start thinking about my goals and how I’m going to accomplish them.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006 at 4:33 pm and is filed under General Personal Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.