Monday, December 31, 2007

New Year's what?

It's that time again... You look back, think "What in the world happened to the last 364 days?" and try to figure out how to make the next 365 even better. New Year's Eve. I was thinking about the New Year's resolutions I made last year. At least, I think I made some. I'm pretty sure I wrote them down. I just don't know where! So what do you think the chances are that I actually accomplished any of them? If you're laughing and saying "No chance at all!" you'd be almost right.

There was one exception: I decided at the beginning of the year of 2007 I was going going to pay off all my credit card debt and student loans. And it happened! What was different? I'll tell you.

First off, it was something I seriously thought I could do in the timeframe I had. It was just going to take a bit of stretching.

I also posted the goal on my fridge, or more accurately, my wife made a fun poster and put it on the fridge.

On top of that, every month, we sat down together and decided what we need to do that month to make progress toward hitting our goal. In this case, that decision was written down in a form called a "cashflow plan" or "budget."

To add to this, I'd check up and make sure we were still on track at least once a week - after I got paid or after we got bills in the mail. I'd say it seems these things all came together in such a way that just made things happen.

I'm going to see if I can duplicate this success in 2008. Instead of a bunch of vague things I'd like to improve in my life, just a few well defined goals and plans to make them happen.