From the Desk of Keith Hafner

How to Choose the Right Goals for the Next Year…

We begin by taking an honest look at the last year.

Work on This for the Next Few Days…Take a sheet of paper and divide it into two columns.

Label the first one: ‘Things That Went Well This Year.’ Fill this column up with victories, accomplishments, problems you solved, difficulties you overcame, areas of growth or improvement.

Label the second one: ‘Things That Didn’t Go So Well.’ Here, list good habits and disciplines that have slipped, relationships that deteriorated, goals and plans that were neglected, opportunities that were ignored.

Work on this for a while. Set it down and return to it later. Do this several times. Go through your entire year. Review relationships, habits and disciplines, goals that were set, health and fitness, spiritual efforts, financial areas…EVERY part of your life.

Then, two steps:

#1. Acknowledge, pat yourself on the back, for the things in the first column. Renew your commitment to all areas of growth and improvement.

#2. Look analytically at the second column. What went wrong? How could you have done better? What steps must be taken to strategically improve these areas?

Important: Do NOT beat yourself up about the things in the second column! We must think honestly and accurately about these experiences. Then, we squeeze them, to extract every lesson we can…then (and this is critically important)…we let them go.

You will find that this exercise will help you set your direction for the new year.