Top 10 New Year Resolutions of All Time
Have you wondered what New Year resolutions most of people create all these years?
According to polls from Quicken, nutrition centers and others, the top ten New Year’s resolutions are (remarkably consistent year after year):
- Spend more quality time with family and friends,
- Get in shape and/or lose weight
- Quit smoking and/or drinking
- Enjoy life more
- Get into a good relationship
- Find a better job
- Get out of debt
- Volunteer more and/or help others
- Learn something new
- Get Organized
I guess this list only applies to people in the U.S. or western world. In many other countries, with different cultures and traditions than here, I would seriously doubt “Spend more quality time with family and friends” could be the number 1 goal for most people. 
Of course, that doesn’t mean people in those countries wouldn’t want to spend time with family and friends, but just that it wouldn’t be their first priority, amongst all things. What do you think?
Be Better Organized With A Mind Map Template
Have you ever tried mind mapping tools? I find it sometimes useful and effective for organizing things related to goals, projects, schedules etc. I guess the reason that it’s very good organizer tool is because the mind map is very easy for the brain to hold these things we try to remember as a picture in mind.
If you have never tried it, you may want to start with a free Personal Organizer Template mind map. It’s built with BiggerPlate.com.
Personal Organiser Template Mind Map
There is another very good mind mapping tool I’ve used before is called Mindjet.
Goal Setting Strategies Learned from Olympic Champions
When it comes to setting goals for the New Year, have you wondered how Olympic athletes do it? What can we learn from those Olympic champions? World records and Olympic champions are never accidental. The ways and strategies they use to set and accomplish their goals can be very effective and must have really worked for them. In similar ways, they can work for us too.
When we set goals, an important decision is about the size. Is it better to set large goals, or small ones? The idealistic answer to that is “large ones”. Because they bring us maximum result and realize our full potential. That’s also how you get to win gold medals if you are an Olympian.
But those large and lofty goals are usually very difficult to accomplish, so for average people they are rarely realized. On the other hand, smaller goals are often easy to achieve, but may not be significant enough to make any real change in our life.
The best strategy therefore is to aim high and celebrate incremental progress toward our larger goals. It is also a better approach to finding happiness and fulfillment from the goal setting process.
When we watch the Olympics, we usually see teams that ranked 3rd and 4th compete for the bronze medal, while 1st and 2nd fight for the gold. In both finals, the teams who won bronze and gold medals were often jubilant and would dance around in excitement, while the losing teams in both matches were understandably disappointed.
This is all normal, and there is nothing unusual about any of these reactions. But what seems illogical is that the silver medal winners tend to react far less positively than those who won bronze medal, even though one would think placing second is still preferable than being third.
Therefore, psychologically it’s much better to feel like you’ve won, even if it’s an easier goal. There is a great advantage to setting a high goal. It will inspire and motivate you to reach for the stars. But what really works for most people is to break that big goal down to relevant and smaller goals, which you will more easily get to by staying positive and motivated. And once these smaller goals are achieved, the large ones are often very close to reach.
How to Set Goals for Your Business in 2010
If you run or own a business, you may want set some goals for your business at the beginning of the new year. I’ve stumbled upon a very nice video on this topic. The main idea behind the whole talk is originally from Anthony Robbins’ goal setting principles, which include four main steps:
- Know your outcome (goal)
- Take action
- Notice your results
- If necessary, change your approach
I believe this formula also applies to almost any kind of goals you have, not just business goals. Anyway, enjoy the video and hope it gives you some ideas you can work with.
Top 5 Tips for Keeping New Year Resolutions
It’s that time of the year again. Time for New Year’s resolutions! What are your goals for 2010? More money, less weight, more travel, or less work? Whatever your resolutions for the New Year, here are some tips to keep you on track and motivated so that you CAN attain your goals.
- Set realistic goals - If you have created 5 New Year’s resolutions, you are almost certain to fail. Be realistic and pick one or two things you really want to do and be specific. Don’t say just “lose weight”, change that to “lose 10 pounds by June 1st.”
- Break it down - If your goal is to lose 10 pounds or work out 3 days a week, break it down even further. Write down monthly, weekly and daily goals that will help you reach your long-term goal. It can be really hard to lose weight, exercise, save money or stop smoking if you don’t know what steps you are going to take to get there.
- Tell everyone! - You need a support system to help you stay on track. Tell your family and friends what your goals are, and even better, see if you can find a buddy to do it with you. It is great to have someone you are accountable to, and who can share your discouragements and your triumphs.
- Reward yourself - Give yourself a weekly and monthly reward. Don’t be discouraged by setbacks, but if you have a great week, you accomplished your goals, then celebrate! Put a picture on your computer, or create a vision board of something you really want for your reward WHEN you reach your final goal. It will motivate you every day!
- Keep a journal - write down your long-term goals, and break it down into monthly and weekly goals. Then every day, keep track of what you accomplished or did not accomplish for that day to measure your success. Don’t beat yourself up if you messed up, but you may see a pattern of things that may help you or hurt you accomplish your goals.
Look at your goals for the New Year, and put these tips into practice if you have not already. It takes 21 days to create a habit and 6 months for it to become part of your daily life. If you have a slip-up today, remember tomorrow is a new day. You have only failed if you quit…so be realistic, reward yourself for baby steps, and keep on keeping on!
How to Never Quit on Our Goals
The number one reason that people don’t get to accomplish any goal is that we quit. This sounds so obvious but many of us don’t seem to realize it when we set out to achieve a goal. When we set a goal, do we ask ourselves, “Will I quit before the goal is accomplished?”
I think that that is the most important question we can ask ourselves before we set any goals. If our answer is not a 100% no, then we’re really not ready and will most likely to quit. Any worthy goals that we want to accomplish, whether it’s to lose weight, stay in shape, become rich, start new business, etc., they all require some level of discipline and resolution from us. Otherwise it’d be so easy that we wouldn’t need to bother setting goals. If we don’t discipline ourselves and give the necessary level of commitment to a goal, it’s almost certain that we will never get to achieve it. In another words, we’re just not serious enough.
But how do we make sure that we will never quit on our goals? One key method is that we need to understand a simple fact about goal achievement, which is that keep trying IS making progress. Often the most likely time when we decide to quit on a goal is when we don’t see any progress, even though we may be still trying hard to make it happen. If we don’t see much progress, we get frustrated and discouraged, and this can very easily lead to less trying, which results in even less progress, and we get more discouraged. So it turns into a vicious cycle until to a point where we simply give up on a goal.
The way to break this bad pattern is to change our belief and keep in mind that our keep trying is making progress. When looking back on a goal we accomplished before, we often see that at certain point when we were not making much progress on the surface, we still kept at it and we finally came through. Those things that we did that might not seemingly make any progress are indeed part of the entire process, without them we’d never have accomplished that goal. That’s why people say that setbacks and failures are just stepping-stones on the path to the ultimate success.
Therefore, remember that the only requirement for achieving any worthwhile goal is simply to never quit, never give up. We only need to remind ourselves that as long as we are still trying, we ARE making progress. As long as we’re making progress, what goal can’t we achieve?
Merry Christmas Tutorial: How to Manage Your Goals
First I’d like to thank everyone who has been a user of GoalsOnTrack. It’s been a great year, and without your support and encouragement this site would not have been possible. I look forward to a great 2010, with more new features and improvements with GoalsOnTrack.com. Wish everyone a merry Christmas and happy new year!
In this short video I showed you how to use GoalsOnTrack to manage and organize your goals with categoreis, and make long term and short term plans.
Setting Goals The Smart Way
I’d like to share with you a very clear and informative PowerPoint presentation that teaches how to set goals in a SMART way, created by Teachers At Risk
How to Choose a Goal Setting System
We all know the importance of setting goals for ourselves, but many people haven’t realized the great value a good goal setting tool can provide. Selecting a right tool or system, not only can help you organize and clarify your goals, but most importantly, it can significantly increase your chance of reaching them more quickly and easily.
Select tools based on your goal types
The first step in deciding on a goal setting tool is to identify what kind of goals you are setting. Is it a personal development goal, a business goal, a career goal, or a health or fitness goal? Different goals call for different goal setting methods, so you will want to select tools that are specially designed for your type of goals. Sometimes it helps to use different tools for goals of different types.
Select tools that are easy to use
Secondly, it’s vital to select a goal setting tool that is easy to use. This can’t be over emphasized. A goal setting tool is to help you focus on your goals, on how you can achieve your results, not on anything else. If a system is too difficult to use, you’d do better without it.
However, “easy to use” does not have to be simple. A lot of people think that a pen and paper based system is easy to use, but they don’t realize it doesn’t support many of the important things required to manage your goals. It may seem easy at first, but it usually becomes very tedious and cumbersome after a while, and can be a major stressor for your goals.
Select tools that help you set SMART goals
A goal that is set based on SMART model (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound) has much higher possibility of being accomplished. Choose a system that helps you set goals in a SMART way and you can take advantage of all the benefits this principle provides.
Select tools that support taking actions
Also important is that a good goal setting system must support you in taking massive action. Without action, no matter how smart a goal is set and managed, it will never be achieved. It’s that simple. We must take action, massive action if so required. So make sure your chosen system has great task management features.
Select tools that help you review progress
Another important feature from a good system is the function to help you review your progress and to keep things on track. This is usually accomplished through an integration of goal and task management, and a journal feature. Keeping a journal for your goals is a great way to help you stick to them and also motivate yourself.
Select tools that help you visualize goals
For certain goals, visualization is a great motivator. Whether you believe in “The Laws of Attraction” and “Creative Manifestation” or not, to be able to see your goals’ outcome, and to constantly keep that vision in mind are always helpful in motivating yourself to reach them. Pick a tool that has a vision board function and makes it easier for you to do visualizations.
Select tools that help you build habits
Finally, choose a system or tool that can help you form new habits. Many of our goals require a change in our behavior and thought patterns. This can be done through forming great habits that help make these changes happen more easily.
No matter what goal setting tool you choose, don’t get discouraged if a particular tool doesn’t seem to work for you. Just find and try another tool. It’s all part of the process in ultimately reaching your goal, especially for those hard and difficult ones. The most important thing is to keep trying and never quit, and always know that as long as you don’t quit, you ARE making progress.
Tutorial Video: How to Track Goal Progress
I’ve created a short tutorial video to help you understand how to track your goal progress with GoalsOnTrack. Please check it out below.
If you have more questions regarding goal tracking, please let me know, or check our help page at http://www.goalsontrack.com/index/help, where you will find FAQs and GOT user manual.
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