I am literally amazed on the amount of people that post resolutions, or goals, or even find just one word to concentrate on for the new years.

And that’s it.

Look – I get the need for using the new year to reset yourself, but if you reset your reset every single year, are you really resetting anything?

And finding one word to focus on for the new year? COME ON. Life is a bit more complicated than one word, but you can give that a shot. See how that works for ya.

You want success? You want a better life? You want to smash your goals? You actually want to focus, or be more present? Create a game plan.

Create A Game Plan

Setting goals is a good start. Trying to reset yourself is a good start. But just throwing the idea out to the world isn’t going to get you there. You need metrics. But even then, that won’t get you there either. Start with a metric, because most of you aren’t doing that (can’t do a metric with a single word!). But the metric is the end goal. What you need is a game plan. HOW are you going to hit the metric.

This is where people miss the most. They have a goal (or a word), but they have no path, no idea, no game plan to get there.

The game plan is the action items you need to do day in and day out to ensure you can hit your goal.

I want to lose 30 pounds by June, then maintain that weight the rest of the year. That is the goal. That is the metric. My game plan is to stick to a strict diet of oatmeal in the morning, almonds for a snack, salad with fish or chicken for lunch, protein shake in the afternoon, then a small helping at dinner, whatever that may be for the family. In addition, I am going to get 5 days a week of 30 minutes of activity (minimum!), one longer session over the weekend (Hike, or bike ride with family type of stuff), and use my TRX twice a week to get a little strength training.

That is a game plan. Now – on my calendar, I can literally write out what I need to do in order to hit my goal. I can track my progress. I can understand what I need to do to hit the weight. And best of all, because I know the actions – the game plan – I can review my plan at half time and make sure it is working. And if is not – I can adjust and still hit my goal.

And it isn’t that hard to do.

In fact – it is simple. I would bet that no matter the goal that you want – you know EXACTLY what you are suppose to do to get it. Go do that. Write that down – and go do that.

Let’s do an example that I have seen FAR too often of the facebook during the past few weeks of people feeling good about themselves by posting their goals online.

Present. Be more present. Be more “here”. Pay attention to my kids more. Be in the moment more.

Great. We all need that. That is called being human. But these damn iPhones keep getting in the way…

Ok – so your word is present. Fantastic. Put a metric behind it.

That is hard with something like presences, which I think why people love that so much. They want to be there more, but there is no way to track if you are there more, so are you really there more, or you just there, more?

So drill down – do you want to be more present in your relationship? Job? family life? Pick one.

Great – it is your relationship. How do you do that?

Come on – say it – “LESS SCREEN TIME“.

Ok, there you have it. You need less screen time. How are you going to do it? Maybe leave your phone at home for dinner dates 1x per week. Or create a rule no phone activity between 6p and 10p.

There is your game plan.

You can do this with any goal you set. But you need a metric (not a word) and you need to WRITE DOWN (not think about) that action that you need to take every single day to do it. Write down the action and post so you can see it every single day and stick to it.

Find your game plan.