Make Your Goals Work For You!

A resolution which says 'I will be more organised' is not a good one, but a resolution which says 'I will keep my clothes and papers in an organised manner, make my bed, have bath at a regular time, eat at a fixed time, go the gym at a fixed hour and go to bed at a stipulated hour' is a far better resolution, points out P V Subramanyam.

Over the years many of us have made resolutions in January and given up in February, have we not? Well, in my case Not. It is just that I did not make enough resolutions -- I seriously do not remember any resolutions at all. So there was nothing to break.

I have no clue why resolutions are made for the 'New Year' -- must be some history that we all follow. Resolutions and goals are surely useful, however, on social media I do see a lot of people making resolutions as follows:

1. Will reduce my weight from 95 kg to 85 kg

2. Will become a better runner

3. Will become financially free

4. I will go to the gym from January 1

And so on.

Somehow such 'goals' or 'resolutions' are too vague and seem to have no reason why they should succeed. Also there is no reason why they should be done. Why should I reduce my weight? Is it really my goal, or a goal given by society?

What will work is 'I wish to go to the gym so that I lose 12 kg in one year so that I can be a better runner. Better runner means I should be able to run 10 km in 53 minutes and I will achieve this by running 15 km a week, every week for the next one year.'

Now look at this Goal (or Resolution): It says what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve and what steps you will take towards it.

So a resolution which says 'I will be more organised' is not a good one, but a resolution which says 'I will keep my clothes and papers in an organised manner, make my bed, have bath at a regular time, eat at a fixed time, go the gym at a fixed hour and go to bed at a stipulated hour' is a far better resolution.

Also you should not kill yourself if you do not 'achieve' your goals in the first week itself. If you resolved that you will go to the gym 5 days in a week and you did go for 4 days, it is a good start.

So give yourself some leeway about how you are going to achieve it. Say you were to run 7 km a day for 6 days but end up doing 37 km in 5 days then it is not bad.

Having a process oriented Goal has a far greater chance of success than a resolution which is purely goal oriented.

A resolution which tells you what to do next morning (I will run 5 km a day for 6 days in a week) is also very useful for the person who made the goal.

Also the goal should be self-made. So if you are happy seeing the forests, hills, and beaches of India, you should not succumb to 'I wish to see a foreign country' kind of a resolution.

It will not work unless you have conviction while making the goals.

Put all these ingredients and MAKE your goals work for you.

Happy New Year, once more, folks!

P V Subramanyam is a chartered accountant with more than four decades of experience in the field of personal finance and blogs at subramoney.com.