I cant’ believe how quickly this month is flying by. Are you ready for 2012? By that I mean, have you set your career, financial, personal goals for the New Year?

I have many thoughts about my goals for 2012 but I am late at getting them down on paper. Here are a couple of ideas to begin setting your goals for the New Year and putting action steps in place. Let’s get a start on this together.

• Goals give you a systematic way to accomplish what you want in life. They need to be measurable, attainable, and specfic. It works better if you have no more than 3 or 4 major goals for the next year. The actual plan you develop will be the list of actions that you must take to reach those goals.
• The three or four major goals need to have a specific definition and not just a bunch of generic words. For instance, if you have a goal about finance, lay it out exactly as you want your financial state to be. If you want to have 1,000 dollars in the savings account by June of 2012 then make this one of your major goals. Your action plan will include what you will do to get there. Make a list of exactly what it will take to save 1,000. Break it down into smaller attainable steps. Cutting out 10.00 per day 5 days a week for 6 months out of your expenses is a very specific action. If  you did that and stuck with it you would actually have 1,200 dollars at the end of the 6 monts and ten dollars a day equals one lunch out, a latte and a candy bar, or extra gas for a trip to the mall. It is a very attainable goal.
• In the above example, the first major goal could be the 1,000 dollars and the steps it takes to get there. The second major goal could be to pay off a credit card in the following 6 months. The other alternative is to make saving 1,oo0 dollars and paying off a credit card  by December 2012 one major goal.  Again, it is measurable, attainable, and specific. Your actions steps would lead you to finish both accomplishments within 12 months.

What will be your three or four major goals for 2012? Leave a comment with your attainable goals and keep reading for a list of mine.