Its New Year’s eve and you’re trying to figure out what stuff did you plan this year; how many wins and losses happened. Every year you do that ‘My New Year’s Resolution’ thing. You post your thoughts as status updates and tweets. You recall it every other day but by February, the resolution starts to fade away. Later, you tell yourself that at least you tried. Well, you did not. You did not even plan your resolution properly. And that’s why, every year you end up at the same spot as the last year, the resolutions may be different though.

The thing is:

You have a creative mind who dreams and wants to do awesome things. But you can’t really focus to achieve your targets.
Well, the good news is: This year we will make sure that your resolutions and ambitions are worked on. How? This way:

1- Take a board marker, in case you do have a white board at home, or a pencil with a piece of paper.

2- Draw a table and make 4 columns as:

| Activity | Satisfaction | Skill Level | Total Score |
3- Now, list down 10 activities / hobbies which have been going round ’n round inside your head. For instance, learning a music instrument, or painting or writing or anything else that you’re fond of.

4- Grade the ‘satisfaction’ level that you get from each of these activities on a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being the most ‘satisfied’ score.

5- Put down your ‘skill level’ for each of these activities from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most ‘pro’ level.

6- Add the scores from ‘Satisfaction’ and ‘Skill Level’ as the ‘Total Score’.

7- Select 5 activities having the top 5 scores. These 5 activities will become the main source of your “New Year’s Resolution”. You may choose more than 5 activities depending on the nature of your work life.

8- Now, draw another table with these 3 columns:

| Activity | Time | Cost |
9- Fill up the ‘Time’ required to learn each activity or achieve each goal and the financial ‘Cost’ associated with it.

10- Awesome! Now, analyze each activity based on the two real life constraints (or challenges), i.e., ‘Time’ and ‘Cost’. This analysis must be very subjective to your current work life, social responsibilities, and bank account.

11- Pick your favorite 2 (or 3) activities based on your analysis. This is your “New Year’s Resolution”.

12- Final Step: Plan your “New Year’s Resolution” for each month of the new year as follows and you’re golden 🙂

| Month | Activity | Pre-req. Activity | Sub-activity | Progress |
For example,

| Jan | Book Writing | — | Write 10 Articles | 0% |

| Feb | Book Writing | Write 10 Articles | Write Book’s First Chapter | 0% |

“Planning is being positive about the future. And that’s what all a winner needs.”
Take total control of your life and unleash yourself with a positive start. Say ‘Hello’ to 2016.

Good Luck Folks, Happy New Year!