#53 Measure Your New Year's Resolutions!

I love this time of year, when we symbolise through our New Year's resolutions the fact that we get another chance to renew ourselves in some way. It might be our health, or our career, or our devotion to something bigger than ourselves - we lift out one or more specific goals and pursue them with all our heart. As you now solemnly resolve to yourself to achieve these personally important things this year, why not take it seriously enough to actually measure? You know you are far more likely to achieve something if you get regular feedback about it, so here are some simple steps to help you keep your eye on this year's most important goals for you:

STEP 1: Write down each of your resolutions as a goal.

As the clock struck midnight on December 31, you may have closed your eyes and muttered under your breath "This year I resolve to..." Taking your New Year's resolution seriously means going a few steps further, and the first is to write down each resolution as a goal statement - preferably on a colourful piece of card or paper in big clear words that you can easily read.

STEP 2: Make your goal sensory rich.

"This year I promise to get healthy". Not good enough, I'm afraid. If you seriously want to achieve your goal, you have to make it so intensely real in your mind that a part of you almost believes you've already achieved it. What do you mean by healthy? Do you mean lose enough kilograms to slip easily into a size 10 pair of Levis? Or do you mean be able to run 5 kilometres in less than 25 minutes without your heart rate going above 150 beats per minute and feeling elated and comfortable the whole distance? Make your goal real in your mind so you can feel, touch, hear, see, smell and taste it - direct the movie of arriving at your goal for your mind to experience in full.

STEP 3: Choose the measures that will keep you on the path.

Select between 1 and 3 measures for your goal. Enough to keep you focused but not too many that measuring becomes a chore. You might like to have 1 or 2 quantitative measures (such as weight or % body fat or waistline measurement) and balance this with 1 or 2 qualitative measures (such as your self-confidence or how loose your clothes feel or how well you feel you're sticking to the path toward your goal). You may find it useful to measure not just your end goal (e.g. your weight), but the little changes you need to work on in order to achieve it (e.g. calories you eat and exercise frequency).

STEP 4: Set up your measurement regime.

Discipline is called for here. Quickly establish the habit of collecting the data that tracks your progress toward your goal, calculating your measures' values and charting them so you can see the entire journey toward your goal. How often should you collect the data (e.g. daily or weekly)? When exactly will you collect the data (e.g. every Monday and Thursday mornings)? What method will you use to collect the data (e.g. scales or a tape measure)? Where will you collect the data (e.g. in your bathroom or at the gym)? How will you remind yourself to collect the data (e.g. a sticky note on the bathroom mirror or a recurring reminder in your PDA)?

STEP 5: Start right now, this instant. Don't dilly-dally!

Grab some coloured paper or card. Write down your New Year's resolution goal in the centre. Write down sensory rich words around the goal (better still, draw pictures or paste photos) and create the movie of achieving it in your head right now (close your eyes, take your time). Select 1, 2 or 3 measures to track your goal. Create an Excel spreadsheet or wall chart or journal to start collecting the data and charting it. Go and collect your first set of data for your measures now.

STEP 6: Review your goal every day, at least until you achieve it.

When you wake up in the morning, one of the first things you should see is your goal. When you go to bed at night, one of the last things you should see is your goal. Look at your goal, read it, and play that movie over in your mind (you'll find the movie gets more detailed, clearer and more intense the more you play it). In addition to the actions you choose to take to achieve your goal, reviewing it daily makes you believe it, makes you unconsciously work toward it. It's very powerful, this habit!

Is reaching your goal worth achieving it?

Setting a goal takes very little in comparison to the effort you'll need to put in to reach it. This applies to personal goals like New Year's resolutions and it applies to business or organisational goals too. If my Grandad was still alive, I'm sure he'd say that one of the main reasons we don't achieve our goals is lack of discipline. Becoming more disciplined is one of my important goals for 2007, because there is much I want to achieve and time waits for no-one!