2 goal prompts and 5 goal setting tips for your new year

Yes, it is that time of year when we set all those well intentioned goals, then promptly get derailed. Sigh, that's the challenge isn't it? Not so much setting goals, but learning how to stay with them.

I've learned to practice two powerful prompts for setting goals and staying with them:

1. Identify 10 faith goals for the year. If you're a believer faith is the "listen to God" part. When one of my personal coaches, Gary Rohrmayer, challenged me with 10 goals it was a bit overwhelming at first. Ten was a lot! In fact, I only was able to come up with six right away, the other four took me a a week to identify. Ten is a significant number for a year, yet we can potentially achieve ten significant goals.

2. Write all 10 goals on paper and keep the list where you see it at least weekly. I keep mine in my desk daytimer at the beginning of every month. I'm running into them constantly. This repeated reminder has a significant accumulative effect.

So how do you write your goals? www.mindtools.com gives these 5 easy suggestions:
1. Write your goals using positive, sensual, emotionally intense language.
2. Express each goal clearly, with the target you want to achieve expressed unambiguously (i.e. don’t say “do my best”, and don’t leave any “wriggle room”!)
3. Make each goal measurable, so you know if you’ve achieved it or not.
4. Make each goal achievable, but only just. It’s been shown time after time that people with difficult-but-achievable goals do much better than people with moderate goals.
5. Set a clear date by which you’ll achieve the goal. Express the goal in the present tense. This makes it so much more powerful!

Best wishes to you as you prepare your 10 faith goals for 2010.