The Master Skill of Success

In this month's installment of Taekwondo instructor training, the teaching is focused on goals. I suppose that this is January's topic of focus - as the new year is a time when we are each given a clean slate ..... 365 days to do with as we will (okay, 366 since 2008 is a leap year). Before being martial arts, I would have made "resolutions" that were vague, haphazardly planned and usually forgotten by mid-February.

This year, I am applying what Taekwondo has taught me and outlining goals for the year 2008. Each of the goals was designed with the SMART principle in mind - Specific, Motivating, Attainable, Relevant and Trackable. Building on this, I have broken my goals in smaller mini-goals -- these are things that I can complete on daily, weekly or monthly basis that tie back into my larger goals.

For example, one of my goals for the year is to decrease my body fat percentage by 10%. I intend to met this goal by doing the following:

1) Modifying my diet to allow for 1200 calories per weekday and 1500 calories on the weekends. Meals will be designed to be low-fat while meeting basic nutritional guidelines
2) Move more - Take a 30 minute walk each day during my lunch break.

Lastly, my goals are written down and placed where I can see them every day. After all, Mr. Moore says a goal is just a dream until you write it down. Perhaps later, I will posts my goals for 2008 . But since it takes more than 3 pages of paper, I am not up to typing them all tonight.

Did you make New Year's resolutions? If so, what were they? If not, why didn't you? I'd love to hear feedback from my readers (all 4 or 5 of you :-) )