In their January edition Glamour Magazine asked their staffers ‘What’s your goal for 2010?’ What I noticed was that they used the word goal instead of resolution. There is for the most part a lot of shifting away from trend of New Year Resolutions.

Somewhere between the 20^th and 21^st century we began to realize that we are already working hard enough and trying to make all the right decisions. Those old style media guilt trips just didn’t work anymore. People are no longer willing to be bullied by companies into thinking that only with their help can they lose weight, quit smoking or have a perfectly organized home.

Where does that leave us though? It means that we should see the New Year as the time to ...................................

............................ because life both personal and professional is a work in progress.

How this specifically works will be different for everyone but I thought I would share with you some areas that you could work on.

LifeStyle

No matter what our age with each year our bodies change so review your diet, sleep patterns and exercise regime.

Reassess what your peak times are in a day. Use them to exercise, maximize your work output or do the house work.

Redefine your family dynamic. Children and grandchildren are growing up so make sure that the time you spend with them is meeting their needs. Look at what commitments aging parents/relatives require this year. Do you and your partner need to schedule more time together?

I recommend posting a big calendar in the kitchen. Each family member has a different colour marker so that individual events and appointments are easy to see and distinguish. Entrepreneurial women should have two colors one for work and one for their personal appointments.

Business

Reassess the mindset that you have towards your business. Yes, you worry about it and try to make all the right decisions but do you protect your business? In the same way that you won’t allow someone to interfere with or question how you are raising your family, don’t permit others to undermine your confidence in how you are running your business.

Review the newsletters that are coming into your email box. Unsubscribe to the ones where the subject line always uses words like ‘urgent’ ‘priority’ and has an exclamation mark at the end. You don’t need hard sell; you are receiving them in order to get helpful & relevant information.

There is an H&R Block commercial currently running where a woman has a tiny workspace in the corner of her kid’s play space. She asks if this constitutes a home office. Yes, yes and yes. Whatever your work space this year redefine it to make it both businesslike and yours. Start with the photograph on your desk. Let it motivate, with an image of the store front you are working towards or the town in Italy that you are planning to visit when you have made x amount of dollars.

So what about those 2010 goals? Write your goal at the bottom of the page; when you put them at the top they sort of loom there. Instead start the page by writing the series of sequential steps you will take to reach the goal that is at the end, this feels far less overwhelming.

As we begin the New Year, resolutions that once had us locked in the mindset that we would either succeed or fail are being replaced by an ongoing process of tweaking, improving and ultimately achieving healthy personal and professional growth.