Depending on where you look, you’ll most likely read that 95–97% of people set goals or make resolutions at the beginning of the year. But at the end of the year, only about 3–5% report attaining their goals. If you’re like I used to be, you probably won’t even remember in December what your goals for the year were.

Would you take a trip somewhere you’ve never been without planning it in detail? I read a quote somewhere that said that most people plan their vacations with better care and more attention than they do their lives. And how many of us get to the beginning of a new year without looking back on the previous twelve months only to realize how much we could have accomplished if only we’d planned better—whether in our careers, in spending more time with family, or in finally making a long-held dream come true.

Ah, there’s that other word: dream. What’s the difference between a dream and a goal? Well, my opinion is that a dream is something for which you can only imagine the desired final result; a goal is something with defined steps you can take to reach the desired final result.

So, whether or not you’ve already started thinking about your goals/resolutions for 2009, here’s the main question you must ask yourself:

Does my goal have definitive steps which I can take to achieve the desired final result?

If you can’t break it down into steps—actions—you probably will never achieve it. Dream big. Then set short-term and long-term goals that will help you make those dreams come true.

Ever since posting updates on some of my 2008 goals a couple of weeks ago, I’ve had several people contact me and ask how one goes about setting goals that they don’t just give up on in March or April (or February). So here are a few tips for setting goals this year.

1. Write your goals down. Post them on your blog, save them in a Word document, or write them in the journal you write in daily. Write them down in a place you’re going to be accessing regularly, somewhere you’re not going to lose them.

2. Be specific. Don’t just write, “Get Published” or “Lose Weight” (those are dreams), write down the steps that will get you to the goal. For example:
Goal: Work on Getting Published
Steps:

• Finish manuscript.
• Get manuscript critiqued (preferably by crit partners, or by entering contests)
• Revise manuscript.
• Write synopsis and proposal.
• Research publishers to target the ones that publish what you write.
• Write query letter and get those submissions out.

3. Set a timeline. How do you eat an elephant? The same way you reach a goal: one bite at a time. Just writing down the steps isn’t enough—you have to give yourself a specific timeline for acting on each of those steps, or, just like always, you’ll put it off. Assign a date to each of the steps on each goal, write those deadlines on your calendar (or set up reminders in Outlook or whatever calendar program you have on your computer or PDA), and don’t let yourself down by procrastinating or pushing those dates back indefinitely.

4. Review and update your goals regularly. Depending on the timelines of your goals (if it’s something that’s going to take a year or longer, or if it’s something that will only take six or seven weeks), the only way to achieve your goals is to revisit them on a somewhat regular basis and update your progress. I wasn’t good at doing this regularly in 2008, thus the reason why I didn’t reach several goals, such as the books I planned to read or some of my personal goals.

5. Prioritize. Yes, there are many things in life that may take precedence over the goals you set at the beginning of the year. But don’t let the day-to-day rat-race of life become so overwhelming that you set your goals aside for it. Set your goals, and then make the attaining of them a priority in your life.

6. Keep it under control. I’ve touched on this already, but the goals you set need to be realistic and outcomes over which you have as much control as possible. If you set goals over which you don’t have control (i.e., “get published this year”), you’re setting yourself up for failure. This is called setting performance goals not outcome goals. You can only set goals based on what’s in your power to do. “Get published this year” is a dream in that the final outcome is out of your hands—and in the hands of the pub boards wherever you’ve submitted.

7. Be prepared for obstacles. The hardest thing about achieving a goal, no matter how well we think we’ve prepared for it, is when unexpected obstacles come up and interfere with our timelines or even throw everything we’ve accomplished already completely off track.

8. Be positive. State your goals in the positive, not in the negative. Don’t focus on what you don’t want to do any more, or don’t want to happen (i.e., “I don’t want to overeat anymore”) and state it as something positive (i.e., “I want to develop healthy eating habits”).

9. Be willing to revise your goals. I was asked in an interview a long time ago to name a goal I’d set and achieved (that was easy—going back to school and completing my education). The interviewer then asked me to name a goal I’d set that I hadn’t achieved. I couldn’t think of one (other than “lose weight,” and I wasn’t going there in an interview). As I thought about all the goals I’d set for myself over the few years before that, I realized that when it looked like I wasn’t going to be able to achieve a goal, I reviewed it and then revised it if it looked like something I couldn’t logically or realistically attain. That’s not free rein to give up on your goals if they’re challenging you, but you do have to be honest with yourself and revise them if necessary.

10. Be realistic, but aim high. Shoot for the moon. If you don’t reach it, you’ll at least reach the stars. If you set your goals high, if you challenge yourself to improve, to work hard, to learn all you can in the effort, everything you do will make you a better person.