It is the end of the year! Woo Hoo! After a long and grueling 2016, I think it’s safe to say that nearly everyone is waiting for the ball to drop. Along with this excitement comes a desire to start fresh in the new year. People make resolutions, start new projects and are ready to make changes.

In fact, about 45% of Americans usually make New Years resolutions, but you know what? Only about 8% of them actually accomplish them! What?? That’s crazy! This statistic has made many people cynical about resolutions. Why make them if you’re not going to keep them?

I propose that it’s not the resolutions causing the problem. I mean, having a new number on a calendar really doesn’t make you a different person, right? My belief is that most people don’t set up their resolutions in a way that is helpful to keeping them. Which brings me to today’s topic – Goal setting for the year!

So first things first: Think about the person you want to be when the ball drops a year from now. The person you are today will not be the same person who has accomplished your goals, if it was, they’d be accomplished by now.  Make your goals based on these desires, because your WHY is what’s going to make them stick

I separated my goals by category – Finance, Health, Professional, and Personal. This is a personal preference (and made my Bullet Journal look pretty) but you can do it as you please. From here, I wrote out each goal, 2 major action steps I’d need to accomplish them, and then my why for each goal.

Now here is the difference between the 8% who succeed and the rest of resolution makers – we break it down to the tiniest steps! Personally, I prefer 12 week chunks based on The 12 Week Year by Brian P. Moran (great book, you can get it here). Essentially, 12 weeks is long enough to accomplish something worthwhile, but short enough to keep a sense of urgency. So I take my big annual goals, and decide on the major steps I need to take in the next 12 weeks in order to get closer to accomplishing them.

For example, this blog is something I want to grow over the next year. So in the next 12 weeks, I need to 1. Write 20 posts, 2. Spend 10 hours per week working on it, and 3. Start taking the EBA Course I signed up for. By completing these, I will inevitably be closer to having a successful blog.

I then break this down even more into weekly action steps. Using the above example, I would set this week to 1. Officially launch the blog (Saturday), 2. Write 2 posts (Saturday and Tuesday), and 3. Schedule my ideal times to work on this so that I make sure I’ve spent my 10 hours (Sunday). As you can see, I also include which days each action will be completed by.

By breaking this down to the day, I am now able to take an obscure, 12 month long goal of growing my blog and turning it into measurable daily actions. I either wrote 2 posts this week or not so I can track why I’m either progressing or not. Also, I can be held accountable for my actions by myself and my accountability buddy!

When all is said and done, most of accomplishing new goals comes from creating new habits and breaking your goals down into action steps. This is what creates momentum for success every day.

So tell me, what helps you create and accomplish your goals every year? What resolutions have you come up with for 2017?