Back HomeSetting Your Goals For 2013
December 30th, 2012 by keithandkinseyWell, here we are at the end of another year! It’s a great time to look forward to the coming year and think about what you would like to accomplish in 2013. It’s also a great time to look back and see how you did on your 2012 goals.
If you aren’t a goal setter, I encourage you to try it. Goals are a great way to improve your life. The difficulty is most people don’t set goals in a way that force them to stick to them. Most people just have some rough ideas in their head of things they want to accomplish, and most of the time they never follow through. There are 5 key things that will help you follow through with your goals:
- Write it down. Without your goals in writing, they will simply slip away as ideas and dreams.
- Have someone hold you accountable. If you have a friend or family member that knows your goals ask them to check in on you occasionally to see how you are doing.
- Make it measurable. Without a way to measure your goal you don’t know when you achieved it. This is the difference between saying I want to lose weight, and I want to lose 10 lbs. The 10 lbs gives you something to go by.
- Give it a timeline. Without a date to achieve something by, you’re not pushed to make it happen. To add to item 3, you might say, I’m going to lose 10 lbs by the end of March.
- It must be realistic. Make goals that push you a bit, but make them realistic. For example if you are starting up a new side business, maybe making a $30,000 profit in your first year is achievable, but making a million is not. Setting an impossible goal will just end in discouragement.
If you read our year end summary you already know that we had many great accomplishments in 2012 and we met and exceeded most of our 2012 goals. There are only two goals that I failed at. One was running a half marathon, though I got close with an 11 mile run. The other was the number of volunteer or charity events we wanted to participate in. I could make lots of excuses like a foot pain that’s been driving me nuts, or just the simple lack of time due to moving, building a house, and a busy business. …but in reality, it’s more just lack of planning and focus in those two areas, and that I can only blame on myself.
I’ll be honest, I’m having a bit of a hard time coming up with goals for 2013. The main reason for this is because we have a baby on the way. I know this will drastically change our lives and time commitments. My primary goal is to be a great Dad and husband, but that’s a little hard to measure or put a timeline on (if anyone has ideas on that let me know). So, I’m setting some goals in other areas of my life that I think are realistic and achievable, yet challenging with a new baby to come. Here’s a few:
- Get my real estate broker’s license – This is a step above a licensed agent. Every agent must work under a broker’s supervision. Ultimately this could lead to starting our own brokerage, we’ll see.
- Match our sales volume of 2012 – We had a phenomenal 2012 with sales up 149% over 2011 (even though our goal was 25%). So, I’ll be happy just to match last year!
- Stay (get) fit – I’ll admit I was pretty up and down with my workouts in 2012. There were some weeks where I just never made it to the gym and others that I kicked some butt. So, I’m going to allow myself some up and down but shoot for an overall average. So, we’ll say run 200 miles for the year, and workout 100 times a year. That’s an average of 2 workouts a week and 3.8 miles per week.
- Charity events –Whether it’s Salvation Army bell ringing, a day working on a Habitat for Humanity house, or a charity run, our goal is to participate in 8 events that benefit charities. This one we failed at last year (I think we did 5 or 6), but we’ll try to make it happen this year.
Post in the comments a few of your goals, and we’ll try to help hold you accountable! Have a great new year! Bring on 2013!
