While I stand behind my post on Personal Quality Programs as the best way to make improvements in your life, I am a goal-oriented person and resolutions are like a challenge just daring me to achieve.  I confess that I cannot move through the New Year holiday without organizing my ambitions into a neat little list.

I’m also a big fan of making your goals public.  They seem to stick better when you’ve shared them with a few hundred of your friends.

In case you are interested, here are my goals for the upcoming year.

  • Complete and publish 1 e-book per quarter.  I’ve pussy-footed around this one long enough.  I love writing, I love publishing and I love the promotional opportunity with e-books.  I’m also a fan of the work and principles that David Meerman Scott espouses in the New Rules of Marketing & PR and his blog, Web Ink Now, and he’s convinced me of my need to publish in this format.
  • Read one book every two weeks cover to cover.  In this time-compressed, Tweet-driven (join me on Twitter) sound-bite world that we live in, I find myself reading the introduction, the first and second chapters and the conclusion.  Unfortunately, too many business books feed this formula by putting all the meaty content at the beginning and the end.
  • Launch my first on-line webinar/workshop modules.   Much like e-books, I’ve danced with this topic and not executed.
  • Increase work efficiency and manufacture more time for family.  Back to the Personal Quality program again.  Simple things, like saving minutes per hour by not monitoring e-mail in real time.  Ignoring blog stats and focus on content creation can help increase efficiency.  More efficient workouts at the gym can trim half an hour.  Getting up at 5 instead of 5:30 every morning is more time created.  With a bit of work, I can manufacture 2 additional hours per day to give back to work and family.
  • Make the tough decisions.  I preach about this in a business setting and yet I’ve held off on some key personal/professional decisions about my practice and career.  I’ve been staring at the cliff on pursuing a Ph.D. and have not jumped or stepped back.  It’s time to decide and keep moving.
  • Find more new professional experiences and conquer them. I’ve long wanted to teach in Grad school and last year it became a permanent part of my life.  I have a few more to knock out.

And last and not least, do a better job remembering how precious our time here is and to try and make every encounter in class, in workshops, in consulting engagements and in life, a good one.  Happy New Year.  Whether you are a goal-driven freak like me and have your own list, or you are satisfied to meander through your days, may you be happy and healthy.