As we come up to the end of one year, it’s important to start thinking about the new one.
In the next few weeks, as you allow yourself the luxury of stepping back from deadlines and meeting the expectations of others, it’s a great time to contemplate what YOU would like to achieve in 2012.
Recently I dug out my list of goals that I set for 2011. It was an interesting exercise.
The first thing I resolved for 2012 is to put next year’s goals in a place where I can see them more frequently. Quite simply, some of my 2011 resolutions were quietly forgotten when the list was put somewhere safe.
The goal that remained most in my focus throughout the year was relatively secondary. It was to ride a certain distance on my bike in the 12 months. Now, I’m just one ride away from achieving the goal. The reason for this is simple. Every time I got on my bike I could see how many kms I’d travelled and I could calculate how many I still had to go. Each month was allocated a number of kms to be ridden and it became an interesting point each week as to how much progress could be made towards the monthly quota. All simple enough to do and it took zero extra time - with all those hours riding along, it was one of numerous things to think about.
So, the point of all this is -
- Don’t set yourself goals unless you are really serious about achieving them
- Remind yourself about the goals frequently
- Measure your progress towards the goals specifically and often
- Share the goal with others. In the case of this year’s cycling goal, the family is very pleased that the bike doesn’t have to come away with us at Christmas :)