Blogs-by-Boris: Simple Tips for Setting New Years Resolutions

What a great time of year! We get three paid Holiday's from work in a span of five weeks, we eat enouph food to cure starvation in Africa, we get presents, we give presents, we steal presents from cars because we have been laid off from work and are desperate criminals, and we come to that point were it is time to set goals for the following year. Setting goals can be quite scary though. Especially when sitting next to the pad of paper you want to write your goals on is last years list of goals with only two things checked off, one being "write a list of goals for 2005". I have to tell you that I am a absolute pro at writing down my goals each year. I meticulously categorize them and can fill a legal size page in just under an hour. In fact I will set a goal right now. I will in the remainder of this blog give each of the 4 of you that read on Wednesdays 5 simple tips to better resolution setting. You may read things that are hard for you to grasp, but I feel that in 4 of the past 9 years that I have set goals for myself I have learned helpful tips. So lets get started.

Tip 1.)- KEEP IT GUARDED - I think that most resolutions are set and shared with others to openly. I have made a goal in the past to go on at least 6 dates during the year. I think I did not meet this goal because I would start my conversation with the girl like this, "Hi, I have a goal to date 6 of you this year, and it would be great if you could be the first. Your eyes are beautiful, and your smile brightens up the room." The thing is I was usually left saying the last sentence to her back as she walked off. Maybe if I would just not be quite so open with my resolution, then maybe things would have gone different, which doesn't explain why I am still dateless, but it does let us all know, what ever your goal is just be sure to keep it discreet. No need for everyone to know what your goals are. That way if you don't meet them that year, not one person will know.

Tip 2.) - KEEP IT ORGANIZED - There is no worse feeling then thinking you accomplished one of your goals and then taking a closer look and realizing that you didn't. This most commonly happens when you have no format in which to set resolutions too. Setting a goal about losing weight and placing right next to saving money, can cause mistakes. You don't want to start being relieved that your on the right track when you are really losing money and saving weight. So I, and I think I am the only one, other then most publishing companies have come up with a super organized way to keep this occurrence from happening. Split them in to categories! Seems easy, but I bet you want to know what categories. And you guessed it, there are 5 of them. Well, to be honest I use 6, but the last one for personal reasons, that you may find helpful too.

1. Financial Goals- This is where you will set goals pertaining to saving money, spending less money on things you shouldn't(prostitution, drugs), spending more on things you should(family,poor bloggers), and setting up IRA's and what not.
2. Physical Goals - Here you will list goals that pertain to your body. Mainly if you want to lose weight list it here, if you want to lose a ton of weight maybe list it under financial goals for a procedure. "Changing your hairdo," or "brushing teeth more regularly" are all good ones for this area. "Look more like Matthew McConaughey" is not.
3. Recreation Goals - This would consist of going to the gym more, playing basket ball in a league, learning an instrument. These are all good. Yoga, Water aerobics, Stretching more. These are all bad.
4. Relationship Goals - Pretty self explanatory here. If your single put find someone that will make you happy. If your not single put why did I not listen to my goals last year. JK.. Maybe a good spot to put listen more, or get better at pretending to listen, I wouldn't know though.
5. Spiritual Goals - If we were all as perfect as Gandhi and Mother Teresa then this would be the only column we would need. But this is an important column. Without God no goal is possible, plus he will be standing next to you when you write these so it would be rude if you didn't.
6. Mental Goals - I add this to my list each year because.... Wait I can't tell you because the first rule is keep you goals Guarded. Ill give you a hint though, it has to do with having a mind that never shuts off.

Tip 3.) - KEEP IT AVAILABLE - What could be worse then getting into a situation where you think you may be accomplishing one of your resolutions, and then not knowing for sure because you do not have your list with you. I know this tip does not help in the formation of goals but I have found it is key to checking off more goals as completed. Example. Three years ago I looked much like I do now, only slightly less gray haired, but I had set a goal to give to the poor. I found my self downtown one night walking to my car when a strangely scented fellow stopped me in my tracks to ask if I could lend (yes lend) him .90 cents so that he could finally pay for a bus ticket that would allow him get back to his wife. Well I froze. I could not remember my goals, the story and the smell of booze had me all confused and I walked off saying, "Sorry I'm fresh out of change." I got home and immediately checked my list under Financial Goals and sure enouph I listed, "Give to the poor." Needless to say this happens no more. I now have a laminated miniature copy of my resolutions that I keep in my wallet so this sort of thing does not happen again. So I just suggest for you to do the same.

Tip 4.) - KEEP IT LOGICAL - There is no need to be filling your New Years Resolutions with goals that you have no business reaching. I made the mistake about 5 years ago of putting all sorts of things down. Like "Fly to the Moon, to Hang Up There with the Stars" and "Star in sequel to Dumb and Dumber" These are non logical goals to be setting for yourself. These are goals we are talking about, not dreams! I do however allow myself, and I suggest you do the same if you would like, to add a footnote to the bottom of your page of goals, and list three Un-logical goals, mainly because it makes all the other goals so much easier to obtain when you see unlogical goals written down that are far fetched. This year I may use these in my foot note section. "Star in the sequel to Dumb and Dumber"; "Own every cereal at one time and place one piece from each box into a bowl and eat it"; and "Get a girlfriend."

Tip 5.) - KEEP IT SIMPLE - These last two tips seem similar but it really is not. Tip five sugests to keep from having dreamy goals that are unattainable. Keeping it Simple means just that, keep your goals simple. I had a bad habit of not keeping my goals simple. They would be paragraphs long and would describe each level of my goal, how long I would need to keep the goal accomplished before I could knock it off the list, and it was just a pain to read. My first goals I set in 1994 was 17 pages long, and I only set 5 goals. But I have learned to keep it simple lately and I now have short easy to read goals all listed in nice categories. There is no need to have a goal of, "I must lose 16 pounds by Valentines Day, another 12 by Labor Day, 15 more by July 4th, 14 more by Fall, 11 more by thanks giving and 10 more(If your adding that is 78 pounds total) by New Years Eve all the while I will having to attend 6 workout classes a week and can only eat fruit while the sun is in the sky." This is not a simple goal. Change that to "Lose some weight." Perfect. Sounds much less daunting and if you ever lose a pound during the year, you can cross it off your list.

Well I hope these five tips help you in this time of setting New Years Resolutions. This has been my brochure of setting goals, but I do have a 6 disc CD set if you want to hear my lectures on the subject available to purchase. Just send me three easy payments of $29.99, and once that third check clears you'll get the series mailed to you free. And I will get to mark a goal off my list. "Dupe someone with a money making scheme or multi-level marketing." So before I let you go I wanted to be sure you had one last reminder of the Simple Tips for Setting New Years Resolutions. (and I wanted to point out that my five tips spell G.O.A.L.S. :)