New Year’s Resolutions

This is the time of year when many people make New Year’s resolutions. Perhaps some of yours will deal with how you save and invest your money, pay off debt, lose weight, or even find a new career. This year I suggest that you put a little more thought into this exercise.  A resolution is a goal and that goal should relate to your mission which should relate to your vision for the future.  Both people and organizations need to establish a strategic framework for significant success. This framework consists of:

• a vision for your future,
• a mission that defines what you are doing,
• values that shape your actions, and
• goals and action plans to guide your daily, weekly and monthly actions.

This year we focused on Self-mastery and high performance organizations. Many of the law firms we worked with developed a strategic plan for the first time.  When the New Year rolls around we will combined these two focuses and develop a single vision that combines our personal life and career.  So when you are developing those New Year’s resolutions, here is what you have to think about.

1. What are the ten things you most enjoy doing? Be honest. To start this off pull your notes from when we did the passion test (your passion drives your purpose with your vision being the definition of success).
   1. What are your five-six most important values? Before we started strategic planning we developed your values based on your beliefs and lifetime experiences (Your belief drives your values and passion). Pull those out and check your list.  Are these still your values?
   2. Your life has a number of important facets or dimensions, all of which deserve some attention in your personal vision statement. Write one important goal for each of them.

• Spirituality (bottom line, what do you believe in)
• Relationships (we all need them)
• Joy (I know we all want to be happy)
• Needs & Desires (what is on your wish list?)  When your life is ending, what will you regret not doing, seeing, or achieving?
• Health (if you are not healthy this could become number 1)

Now write or re-write your vision for next year and the future.  When you have it all done, stand back and think about some meaningful New Year’s Resolutions.