Monday, January 7, 2013

I'm going public!

I spent the whole month of January last year blogging about New Year's Resolution-ish posts tied mostly to goal setting.    You can check them all out here:

Strategic Resolutions
Your Stop Doing List   (The article by Jim Collins linked in this post is one of my absolute favs)
Goal Setting- A Series
Goal Setting- Diminishing Returns
Goal Setting- Feedback

Although I'm not going to spend the whole month of January this year talking about making yourself over with goal setting, (because by the time we get to the end of January we will probably have ditched most of our New Year's Resolutions anyway according to the research) I am going to to attempt to keep myself from ditching mine by going public with my goals for 2013.

In addition to the research driven topics I talked about in 2012 to improve your goal commitment, publicly declaring your goals has proven to help goal commitment and achievement.

Here are mine:
1. Maximize productivity in the morning.  I am, by far, the most productive in the morning if I will just take what seems to be the small but actual a huge step of getting my two feet to hit the floor.   This year, I'm committing myself to get up at 5 AM at least three times a week for a workout, a devotion, no rushed feeling while getting my little one ready, and time in the office early to get started.  I want to spend the hour I get to the office early these three times or more a week writing and reading about career and leadership topics. Long term, I want to write a book and have it published on career development.

2. Grow company revenue by 30% or more in 2013.  I spent quite a bit of time last week looking over the business development activities I engaged in and analyzing what results those activities created. With this, I have come to the conclusion that this a challenging yet reachable goal.  I have set mini goals/tasks in each area of my business to help reach this target. For example, make four initial contacts with a new business prospect each month. In order to keep up with these targets and tasks, I have created a simple spreadsheet (that I actually use with some of my coaching clients).

Here's an example of what it looks like:



I wish I had a way to synch this with my Outlook task list, or something that would let me do both in one system that is inexpensive and coordinates with my email and calendar.  If you know of one, please let me know!

That's it for my goals that are professional in nature.  As far as the personal goals, number one above incorporates some personal components such has health and spirituality, but here are the exclusively personal ones:

1. Cook dinner and sit down as a family to eat at least four times a week. 
2. Be committed (as I have been the last two years) to one day a week at home with my little boy.
3. Express gratitude to those closest to me.  (For more on the why behind this goal, read an earlier post here.)
4. No debt except our house by the end of the year.
5. Read 30 books.

What are your goals for this year and what tools to you find helpful in achieving them?  Go public with yours!


Want more?  Here is a blog I follow who has gone public with her personal and professional resolutions too- Intern Queen



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