Tag: priorities

Secret of Success for New Year goals and resolutions

Statistics suggest that very few people are successful at achieving goals and resolutions. For many, this is due to not setting a plan toward success. A goal with no plan to achieve it is simply a hope.

Another factor though, necessary to achieve your new years goals and resolutions, is margin. Consider finances: if you are spending every penny you make on regular living expenses, you have no additional resources to give away, to invest or to pay down debt. Creating margin in your finances is necessary to achieve whatever financial goals you set.

This is also true with time. If your daily life is filled with work and personal activities that do not contribute to your goals (no time for exercise, e.g.), then you have to make time for those things by creating margin in your schedule.

With money, margin can come through earning more, but all of us are bound by the 168 hour week. To get more time, you either have to get more efficient or cut some things from your list. Look at your regular weekly activities and ask yourself which ones are less important than achieving the goals you set for the year. Find a way to cut and then fill that time with activities that will propel you toward success.

How will you create margin? And what will you do with it?

Thinking about a new year…

As we come to this time of year, most people are thinking about goals, resolutions, and plans for the coming year. This can be a challenging exercise, but can also be a helpful one to set you off on a good foot into the new year. Here’s a quick and simple way to think about the year ahead:

Take a sheet of paper. Fold it in half and then fold it in half again. Then unfold the paper to its full size.

At the top of each quadrant, write the following words: Career, Financial, Relationships, and Self.

Now within each quadrant, jot down notes about where you’d like to be 12 months from now. Career is an area many people plan goals for, but this is only a portion of your life. Take the time to think about all four of these categories. Relationships should include your spouse, children, other family, and friends. Self should include spiritual, health, personal development, and recreation.

Once you’ve done this, your best chance of achieving these will be if you establish plans for each. If one of your “Self” goals is to be 20 pounds lighter, for example, you’ll need to commit to a plan to achieve that goal.

Next week, I’ve got some thoughts on what section of your life you should focus on to increase your odds of success.

If you find this exercise useful, I’d love to get feedback. Just comment below. (You can repeat the exercise with any four categories if you want, but seeing it all on one piece of paper brings a unique perspective on your world, and one that I have found helpful.)

Do the Honey Do List Second

Once in a while, I find myself with spare time on my hands around the house. It’s rare, but it happens a few times per week. When I find myself in that position, I am so unselfish 🙂 that I look for things I could do to surprise my wife:

Wash the dishes, pickup around the house, really surprise her by taking care of some laundry…

One of my love languages is acts of service, so I immediately set to work on one of these small items, knowing that my wife will be so blessed when she gets home and finds this task done. She will, it’s true, but there’s a problem with my thinking if I always resort to this list first…

There are a few tasks in my world that will never appear on a list, my wife will never ask me to do, and she’ll never be surprised that I’ve done them. In fact, she probably won’t even notice – unless I neglect them completely.

Studying the Bible, exercise, praying for our marriage and our children, managing our finances…

These things will never appear on her list, because they’re “my job”. Those other things need to be done and when I have time, I should show honor and care for her by doing them. Never at the detriment of the things that are my primary responsibility though.

Hey dads, are you neglecting “your job”?