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Who needs to set goals every year? Just get out last year's list, cross out 2010, and replace it with 2011. Easy.
I call them “roll-over goals.” They're kind of like the roll-over minutes on some cell phone plans. We set goals, we don't achieve them, and so we just dump them into the next year, and the next, and the next. Determined—for at least a few days—that this time we'll make it! But we never do, so we continue to churn the list from one year to the next. It's so close to true that it hurts to see it in black and white.
Sure, you've heard it before, but this year will be different for me. Really. Honest.
How do I know? Because this year I have more than a list of dreams and ideas. I have an action plan.
“Wishin' and hopin' and thinkin' and prayin'” only give you a dream. But to turn dreams in your head into a dream life, you have to take action. And not just any action, but the right action to move you toward what you really want. You've probably heard Stephen Covey's analogy about frantically to climb the ladder of success…only to find your ladder is on the wrong wall. Similarly, reaching the goals you've set depends on the correct actions and will be magnified if they are correct, effective actions.
Sunday is our weekly planning day and Sam and I are going to sit down with our dream lists for 2011 and turn them into dream life action lists.
It's 11:11 on 1/1/11. Now is the time to change your life! Bring your hopes and dreams and let's take action together. Join us in our quest for an amazing life!
What's on your wish list for 2011? What plans do you have to act on them?
Alison Moore Smith is a 61-year-old entrepreneur who graduated from BYU in 1987. She has been (very happily) married to Samuel M. Smith for 40 years. They are parents of six incredible children and grandparents to two astounding grandsons. She is the author of The 7 Success Habits of Homeschoolers.
Happy new year and best of luck for your action plan. I want to start my own business lets hope I can do it this year.
Shailender, I wish you the very, very best on your business goal. It can be a daunting task, but the rewards are great. Keep me posted!
I came here through your comment on Kikolani.com. You mentioned you were LDS, and so am I 🙂
I think you make a great point here. Those rollover goals just have baggage with them; there’s the history of failure attached to them, and who wants that at the beginning of a new year?
Thanks for the post, Alison! I thoroughly enjoyed and retweeted it.
Tristan, didn’t know you were LDS, too. 🙂 Kikolani is probably my single favorite tech site.
New Year’s resolutions certainly do carry a lot of emotional weight. I hear people all the time (including my cousin, just today) saying they don’t ever make them because they are just disappointing. Too bad. They have such power — if we actually use that renewal process to move forward.
Thanks for dropping by.
Very inspirational, Alison. Like you, I’m also tired of never achieving my new years resolutions. It had gotten to the point where I stopped creating them!
This year is going to be different though. I can feel it. 🙂
Thanks for the motivation boost,
Christina
Christina, thank you for the boost as well! Accountability helps. I’ll be posting my first set of goals in the next week. Maybe having them out there for all to see will keep me on the path!
Good luck with yours as well and thanks for stopping by. 🙂