Did you do your homework?

A couple of days ago I asked you to think about the next 12 months.

• Did you take the time to work out what was / is important to you?
• Did you work out what changes you really do need to make?
• Have you worked out your real timelines?

I will give you a personal example. I have yo-yo'd with my weight now more times than Oprah. Injury, illness, can't stick to the prescribed eating plan for months on end AND hope to function properly. So over the last couple of weeks, starting actually on the 10th December I have begun to work out the why and how I can achieve my goal. And in doing so have already dropped the first 3 kilos (6.6lbs) - yes over Christmas.

The why's of WHY do I yo-yo are interesting , but more of that in a moment, injury and illness notwithstanding (I am currently running on injured knees), but the reality is all I need to lose is a mere 0.65 of a kilo per week until my birthday to reach my goal. That's it - a mere 0.65, or 2 and a bit kilos per month. (2.2lbs per kilo BTW). As my partner will vouch I can drop that in a week let alone a month if I want to, so what is stopping me?

Well I sometimes let life overwhelm me, I pretend I am the Energiser Bunny and I run into brick walls. Forever busy, forever doing "stuff" but the truth is - my "plans" have been flawed. Trying to do too much at the same time, even working from the wrong angles some of the time.

So a personal plea. If you haven't worked through the last lot of "homework" I ask that you do give it some serious thought over the next couple of days. Some say the first 100 days of the year are the best way to start your challenges, but the truth is you can start at any time so long as you know where you want to end up at the end of it. What would your life be like if you achieved every single one of your goals in 2012?

Now that can be a scary thought for some people, and may be the real reason why people actually procrastinate or de-rail their progress. What if I fail? What if I succeed? How will I cope? What will I do next?

The reality believe it or not, is that as you work towards achieving this current set of goals, you will find that your capacity to do more actually increases. Your goal list will change and grow as you do. You may decide that your 2012 goal was to get another 10 thousand a year, as you work out your plan you realise your goal should have been how could I have doubled my income during the year? And what am I going to do with all the money - and that is where the rest of the goals kick in. Money gives you choices. Lots of money gives you LOTS of choices - my problem would be, what on earth do I do first. Bring it on.

Once you have worked out your plan for the year, I would recommend you write it down. As simple as it sounds, if a plan is written down you are more likely to stick to it, especially if you treat yourself like a "client" as my partner and I discussed over the weekend. You don't let a client down, so why would you let yourself down?

In my case - for the weight loss and exercise goal I have set for myself I have created a series of spreadsheets... Did I meet my target? Did I beat it? Did I not work hard enough? And I email that through to my trainer and dietician - so they can keep me accountable as well as myself. It;s much harder to cheat knowing someone is going to be standing there, saying - you didn't do too well this week...

As we all know Measurement is an important part of goal setting - so ensure your goal has a proper and accountable measure in place.

With that said, believe it or not Saturday marks the end of the first week of the 2012, which really is something to think about as we measure our first weeks performance. How did you measure up?

Elle