We’re a couple weeks into 2021. Sadly, that means many of the New Year resolutions set after Christmas have already come to a screeching halt. According to U.S. News & World Report, the failure rate for New Year’s resolutions is said to be about 80 percent, and most lose their resolve by mid-February. If you have hung on until now, statistics show you have a few more weeks, unless you’re a part of the other 20%.

I became obsessed with setting goals in college but was initially intrigued while playing high school sports. I’ve read a lot of books, blogs, social media posts, scholarly articles and basked in my own thoughts about goal setting. It’s fascinating to see all the differing opinions on what works, and what doesn’t work. It’s also been enlightening studying how one person achieves goals vs. how another does. What works for one person may be the wrong answer for someone else. The self-awareness and self-discovery journey is never ending. Ultimately, you have to find what process will work for you to be a successful goal setter.

I’ve concluded that successful goal setting isn’t about the actual process of setting goals. It’s about building habits. My research and curiosity eventually led me to the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. I highly recommend reading it if you haven’t. Essentially, we’re a sum of the habits we build and create.

I’ve settled on a new goal setting process that I want to share, with the hope it will help someone else. Here’s the template –

2021 – Choose One Word

January –

February –

March –

April –

May –

June –

July –

August –

September –

October –

November –

December –

I choose one word to guide my entire goal setting process. For example, this year my one word is Impact. The statement lingers in my mind, “Impact someone else.”

Last year, in 2020, I wrote out my year plans month by month for the entire year in December of 2019. The problem was the unforeseen circumstances that arose early in the year, crashing out a few of my goals before I had the chance to attempt or achieve them. Of course, I’m talking about the Covid-19 pandemic. To help narrow my focus and keep my goals in my control better, I’ve decided to set them on a month-by-month basis. For example, towards the end of January, I’ll make a list of the goals I want to achieve in February. I then will break down week by week what I need to do in order to achieve my goals. At the beginning of the week, usually on Sunday night, I look at my weekly goals and break them down day by day. Again, it comes down to the habits I have created in order to successfully achieve said goals. This has allowed for a hyper focus on what matters most in the moment.

What has worked for you? I’d be curious to see what methods other people are using in our world of distraction to achieve the objectives most important to them.