I’ve never kept any New Year’s resolutions. Sure I thought up a few but once the party is over. Once I am back into the routine of my daily life . . . those resolutions I was so eager to start, work through, and eventually achieve, are forgotten.
So I rather than figuring out why I never follow through, I just decided to not make any resolutions and begin each New Year with the same old bad habits I had in the previous year.
Until now.
Recently in my writer’s group our guest speaker spoke about goals vs. resolutions.
Really? Aren’t they the same?
No. Resolutions, she said, are always negative: lose weight; give up smoking; stop drinking, etc.
Whereas goals are positive or should be positive: start running, practice yoga, and switch from bourbon to wine.
But goals aren’t just positive but should be SMART.
Smart?
No. SMART. Specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time bound.
I hadn’t really thought about goals in this way before. I suppose because I’ve always worked in an industry where someone else was always setting the goals: like manufacturing deadlines, end of fiscal year contracts, statement of work deliveries, etc., and before this, when I was in school, the instructor or professor would tell us when are assignments are due, when the tests are and more importantly the school would set up the calendar so I always knew when the semester ended.
So deciding for myself what goals I want to reach I suppose is a relatively new concept for me and setting my own goals seem like such a daunting task until now . .
So for 2017 I’m not just going to work on my book or think about writing here or dream about what if I advanced my writing career . . . instead I’m going to make a New Year’s Resolution and set some SMART goals.