Happy New Year! I’ve written about goal setting a few times before…my first post was actually about setting SMART goals…
here are some tips for kicking the soda habit
more about resolutions here
and plenty of motivation for sticking with those goals here, here, here….)

But today I wanted to focus on one important question… WHY? It’s great to decide you want to lose weight, or to spend less, or read more, or focus on your business, but unless you figure out WHY you want to do those things, it won’t stick. I’m guilty of setting a vague resolution in the past but without asking the important question what is my motivation for sticking to it? I’ve also gone the SMART goal route and defined small steps and a timeline,etc., but again….if I don’t figure out WHY I want to do it, why would I really make it a permanent change.

Example: say you decide you want to save money…are you saving for a house? Paying off debt? Saving money to travel this year? Spending less money eating out, and cooking at home more?

What about if you want to “lose weight”…are you trying to improve your health? Run a race this year? Have a more active life with your spouse or kids or grand kids?

You want to read more? Why? For pleasure? Are you trying to learn something specific? Improve your business? Spend more time away from technology?

Do you see the benefit? There are so many worthwhile goals to set, but if you don’t figure out specifically why it applies to your life and why it’s important to you…there really isn’t any point in sticking with it all year…let alone until January 31. Here’s to a healthy and productive year!