Being SMARTER in the New Year

It's that time of the year where most people would make new resolutions for the coming year. All time favorites include "I've to go on a diet program!", "I must start exercising daily" and "I got to quit smoking". These resolutions are very personal and beneficial to the person/s who made them. Yet, we all know that most of these resolutions would have been broken before the new year is barely a week old.

Why are new year resolutions so fragile? My view is that they are so general that they don't lend themselves to specific action, measurability and commitment. Making resolutions and yet not resolute enough to see them through may reflect the character of a person.

However, for those who are so intent to be successful in achieving something during the year, I have a solution for you. Instead of new year resolutions, you can set personal goals with clear milestones marked over the next 12 months.

Corporate goal setting usually follows the SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achieveable, Realistic and Time-based) principle. In setting personal goals, I like to advocate the SMARTER way. As the achievement of personal goals pertains to personal successes, each personal goal statement has to have elements of Stretched, Measurable, Aggressive, Repetitive, Time-based, Emotional and Rewarding. For example, an individual who is 10 kg overweight and desires a balanced body weight, can set a personal goal like " To achieve a 12 kg reduction in body weight by end of June 2009". This means that the individual has only to take the necessary action steps to achieve a monthly 2 kg reduction over the next 6 months. Paul J. Meyer says "success is the progressive realization of worthwhile predetermined personal goals".

The good habits of being discipline and highly committed honed from the process of setting and achieving personal goals yearly invariably will positively contribute to the professional development of an individual at the workplace. Personal success is the cornerstone of professional success.

As a first step to personal and professional success, get rid of the old habit of making new year resolutions which you don't intent to follow through. So be smarter than others in the coming new year by setting personal goals the SMARTER way!