Leadership Insights -

If you're like most people, this is the time of year when you reflect on your life and begin to set some goals for next year. In all my years as a performance coach I have found three things that most people fail to do when it comes to "New Year's Resolutions".

#1 - Celebrate your successes! I think just about everyone has an ongoing mental list of all the ways they are falling short. We tend to focus on what we're doing "Wrong" in life, but the reality is that you are probably doing a whole lot more "Right". In order to build your self-esteem and your self-confidence in your abilities, you need to build on your successes, and you can't do that if you never recognize them. Take a moment to recognize all the things you are doing well... or better yet, all the things you are doing GREAT! List them out and then identify the personal qualities or skills you enjoy that work in your favor.

#2 - Focus - Most people set too many goals and the end result is an overwhelming list of things they "should do" instead of one or two things that they "MUST" do. It's perfectly ok to make a list of all the ways you would like to improve your health, finances, relationships, and career, for example. But once you have your wish list, identify the ONE thing that you MUST do. The thing that would have a tremendous impact on your life in 2011 and beyond!

#3 - Set STRONG goals. People tend to set "weak" or vague goals. Goals that aren't exciting, empowering, or that are poorly defined. If you want to set STRONG goals, follow the steps below. STRONG is a simple to remember acronym that will help you create goals that are worthy of you!

S - Specific - You can't be vague in your goals. Things like I want to make more money, or I want to lose some weight, won't work. They're not specific enough and they don't inspire any emotion or excitement. A better goal would be, "I want to earn enough money to buy a brand new BMW and pay cash for it". Or "I want to lose 25 pounds". And by the way, goals like "I want to be happier" are the worst since they can never be clearly defined. Happiness is an elusive target because it is a mental choice, not a tangible goal. You can choose to be happy no matter what your circumstances are. Further, happiness is not only defined differently by every person, it is defined differently by the "same" person at different points during their life. Many people have set a goal for something because they thought it would bring happiness, only to find that they redefined happiness along the way to achieving it. So the first step is to review your goals and make sure they are specific.

T - Timeframe - Second, give your goals a time frame. Using the examples above, "I want to earn enough money to buy a brand new BMW and pay cash for it by January 1st of next year". Give yourself a time frame so you feel some urgency. Or I want to lose 25 pounds before our class reunion in June. You won't always hit your time frames but having one helps you really think through the incremental milestones, and it helps you maintain your discipline as you see the deadline approaching. It also helps with the third letter of the STRONG acronym... Be Realistic

R - Realistic - This is my least favorite advice to give because I think most people are already TOO realistic in their goal setting. After all, the reason we set goals is because we want MORE, which implies achieving and experience more than you ever have before, which intuitively is UNrealistic. Often people refer to being "realistic" as an excuse for being negative. They say things like, "I'm not negative, I'm realistic. Or my favorite, "Yea, I know my life is in a rut but at least I know what to expect! If I set new goals and get my hopes up, I'm just setting myself up for pain and disappointment. I'd rather set "realistic" goals I know I can achieve". While absolute certainty isn't the correct approach when setting goals, I think it is also fair to say that some people go too far in the other direction and set goals that are completely out of reach. The last thing we want to do is set ourselves up for failure. Instead, it's better to have incremental stretch goals and successes to build on. The easiest way to make a goal unrealistic is by setting an unrealistic time frame. For example, it's reasonable to set a goal to improve your bench press strength from 200 lbs to 250 lbs, but it is unrealistic to say you want to do it overnight. So be fair to yourself when you set your goals. Push yourself to grow but don't set yourself up for failure.

O - Objective (Measurable) -Objective goals are quantifiable. For anything to be improved you must be able to track it and measure it. So, your goal needs to be measureable with facts and evidence, and not based on feelings or opinions. For example, if your original goal was, "To be more valuable to your organization, you need to reword it to be both more specific and objective. You need to find a way to quantify your value to the organization this year, such as increased sales, or decreased expenses, or number of positive customer service evaluations, etc.. Once you have your baseline data, you can then compare your value from year to year. In the end, you would determine your value to the organization with tangible information and not simply by someone's subjective opinion.

N - Noteworthy - If being realistic is the Yin, then having Noteworthy goals is the Yang. In other words, for something to exist, there must be an opposite. You can't have a left without a right. There wouldn't be an up without a down, or a cold without a hot. So if you must be realistic when setting your goals, as I said few a minutes ago, there has to be a counterforce that keeps you in check from making it too easy. That's why your goal must be Noteworthy. In other words, it needs to be inspiring and challenging. Something that will make people take notice! A goal of increasing your sales by 1% is hardly something to get you excited in the morning. Neither would a goal to raise $20 for charity. You can't do much with $20. We have to have goals that make a difference or that lead us to wonder if we've got what it takes to pull it off.

G - Gain - The last letter to consider when creating STRONG goals is the "G". The G stands for GAIN. What's to be gained when you achieve your goal? Or put another way, what's the value? How will your life or the life of others be improved? Will you have a better quality of life? Will you be able to send your kids to college because of this goal? Will success in your goal bring joy to you or help make someone's dream come true? Getting clarity on what's to gain will give you what I call your "Compelling Why". Knowing your "why" is important because "You'll always find a way if you know the why." I don't have a five million dollars right now because I don't have a compelling why pushing me to have that much money. Sure, I guess I would like to have five million dollars, but it's not really a driving force in my life. But if tomorrow a doctor told me my son had a serious disease that wasn't covered by insurance and I would need millions of dollars to cure him, I guarantee you I would find a way to get the money. And so would you. Once we have a compelling why, the rest will take care of itself.

In his presentations, Doug Hanson moves people from complacent to engaged with a witty, hilarious, story-telling style that holds his audiences captivated. He has the unique ability to modify his program content and flow to meet the needs of any group. His combination of business experience, formal education, entertainment skills, and real life stories of his own family and personal life allow him to balance his content with the right humor, anecdotes, and exercises. See for yourself what his customers are saying. Visit his website and review the testimonials at www.doughanson.com.