As the new year approaches it’s the season many people begin to think about or perhaps have already started to set New Year’s resolutions.
A New Year’s resolution is a promise that you make to yourself to start doing something good or stop doing something bad on the first day of the year.
Here’s some New Year’s Resolution statistics for 2012:
- Approximately 45% of Americans made New Year’s resolutions;
- Only 8% were successful in achieving their resolutions;
Most people don’t stick to the resolutions long enough. Have you ever noticed that you see the most gym membership specials the weeks leading up to and after the New Year? People make a resolution they don’t keep and end of with a membership barely used.
I don’t set New Year’s resolutions, instead I create “B.A.G.s” and they’re usually made in September right before or a little after my birthday because I consider my birthday my personal new year. Besides, doesn’t September seem like a new year? Summer’s unofficially over, the kids are back in school, and to an extent us big kids are back to the seriousness of work after the lazy days of summer.
What is B.A.G.?
The term ‘Big Hairy Audacious Goal’ (BHAG) was proposed by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their 1994 book entitled Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.
Without going too much into the book, based on the title alone you could surmise that the general idea is successful companies plan how they will remain successful and discover new or better ways to be successful. They have yearly and quarterly strategic meetings for the purpose of growing their company by either launching a new product or service that satisfies customers and generate more revenue.
On a smaller scale, you must use the same approach when you set your goals.
Write your goals
Photo courtesy of healthline.com
I decided to adopted Big Achievable Goals as my guide for setting goals. I dropped the “hairy” part and I prefer to use “achievable” as opposed to “audacious”. In January 2011 I started writing down my goals and by the end of that year I had achieved 6 goals. Not a bad start, which made me excited because I saw that writing down my goals made it more likely for me to achieve them. I decided to maximize my efforts by involving a few friends to share and accomplish big achievable goals. They agreed to a goal planning party and we called it “BAG IT 2012”. I was so excited and committed to it that I did an Evite to make it fun. (See below a screen shot of the Evite)
You’re invited to a B.A.G. It Goal Planning Party
Micheal Gerber, author of the awesome book The E-Myth Revisited said: “Great people have a vision of their lives that they practice emulating each day. To actively make your life into the life you wish it to be, you have to create it intentionally.”
Are you ready to make your life into the life you wish it to be? Check back next week for part 2: Prepare to BAG IT!
Live your life with intention
