Week 1: Get a System that Works

Well, now that the festivities and celebrations of Christmas and New Year are over, it’s time to knuckle down and take your resolutions seriously.

But before we get into it, here are some sobering facts. In 2010, the average person will:

1. Break their resolutions by the end of January.

2. Only make the same amount of money as the average of their last 5 year's total income.

3. Gain 2 pounds of body fat.

4. Struggle with the same habits, patterns, and behaviors that they always have.

5. Get to the end of the year and have made very little progress in their life.

The fact is, its people who are outside of the "norm" that really do anything significant with their lives.

And it has nothing to do with luck of fate or genetics. The fact is, success "can" be reverse engineered and reproduced. You don't have to accept what everyone else is getting or doing - but you must make a few new choices.

Suppose you decided today - right now - that you're finally making a REAL commitment to turn your dreams into actions... your goals into achievements... AND your Resolutions into reality.

It can happen... but you've got to take the first step.

Now, in the last few newsletters of 2009, I asked you to think about what you really want from your life and take that first step in setting and achieving goals. Over the next few weeks I’m going to give you some advice on how you can improve your chances of achieving success.

And my first bit of advice is … find a goal setting system that works for you.

The truth of the matter is that goal setting is just a process, a simple process at that. But there are some traps and pitfalls you want to avoid, and some tips and tools that can make the process a whole lot easier.

That’s what a goal setting system does – makes your goals setting journey easier, which means you enjoy the journey more and are more likely to succeed. Anyway, here are some good programs that you can try:

Life Planning Program

The Life Planning Program is a workbook style program that you can work through at your own pace, and is supported by practical tools, templates and assessments – and it’s all FREE!

The program is based on helping you to identify what you really want out of life and how you can achieve it by understanding how your own unique personality, strengths and weaknesses affect your ability to set and achieve goals. The program then uses the industry accepted method of setting SMART goals, and shows you how to develop action plans to achieve these goals.

The program is very in depth for something that’s free, but because it’s free, it’s not very pretty in parts!

Goal Pro

GoalPro is a goal setting software, probably the most feature-rich application in the self-help industry. The latest version has great interface, lots of new features, and new video tutorials that show you how to work with this program. That's great, because the program is so full with features and it's not so simple to take advantage of all of them.

You can literally do hundreds of stuff with this program, like:

• Build your personal Success Tree. (I love the name!) You do it by breaking your goal down to smaller goals, then to tasks and appointments, so it's not so overwhelming. All you have to do is to follow the plan step-by-step.
• Manage all your tasks in calendar.
• Check your progress with reports and visual graphs (great for some inspiration!)
• Keep a daily journal (for a stuff like "What I'm grateful for?", "What made me happy today?" "What have I accomplished today?")
• Write down all your brainstorming sessions.
• Plus it has build-in Success Coach, that encourages daily specific actions.

So if you're looking for something that would help you to get yourself organized and focused on your goals, you can download 15-day trial to see if it works for you.

Got Resolutions Challenge

The Got Resolutions Challenge is a personal leadership program that provides a step-by-step system for setting and achieving your New Year's Resolutions. When I saw this exciting program, I was really impressed by its content, delivery, and overall impact of both its message and first-class execution.

This exciting program will be there to support and guide you so YOU can resolve to change your life for the better, and I mean MUCH BETTER! You have an awesome opportunity to begin the year fast, focused, and full of hope. All you have to do is say YES, I'm ready to make this the best year of my life!

It's easy to get started right away. Visit Got Resolutions today and make your resolutions a reality, once and for all!

100 Day Challenge

Many of you took up the 100 Day Challenge issued by the GoalsGuy in September 2009. This was an excellent program, designed to finish the year with a bang – and I hope those that participated got some real value out of the program.

Anyway, the GoalsGuy is issuing the Challenge again starting on 11 January. So why not start the near at full speed and take up the 100 Day Challenge.

And don’t forget, you can try one or more of the following FREE resources to help you on your journey:

So until next week, resolve to make 2010 the best year of your life!