Happy New Year to everyone!

For many of us — as we cautiously tip-toe into 2022 — this is the time for a clean slate and new beginnings. So we create resolutions lists, goal lists and swear to ourselves that this year will be different from the last.

I used to make a list of resolutions every year, and most years, I would fail miserably at attaining them. Arg! Sometimes I wouldn’t make it past the first two weeks of the year before my goals fell by the wayside.

Last year, however, I did something a little bit different. I met all my goals.

I realized the problem was that I didn’t add any action steps to help me reach my objectives, nor did I hold myself accountable. So last year, I created a spreadsheet with each of my goals along with all of the actions I needed to take to achieve them. But not only that, I also set myself reminders in my to-do app (I use Todoist) to periodically check my goal progress to 1) ensure I was on track 2) to see what the next action steps were. I found that setting myself reminders was vital in me achieving what I set out to accomplish. As it turned out, this was the missing element for me.

Of course, everyone is different, and we all need to do what works for us. I just figured I’d share this tidbit of what worked for me because it just might be the missing element for you as well.

As for my goals, I am keeping them simple this year. I’m mainly going to focus on novel writing and piano practice. By the way, this was another ingredient to successfully achieving my goals: make them attainable and realistic. I remember those days when I used to have 30, 40, or 50 items on my New Year’s Resolutions list and would be so overwhelmed that I quickly gave up. Now I include only a few of the most important — and most attainable ones.

Here’s wishing everyone a healthy and happy new year — and may you attain all your goals!