The time is here. January provides an opportunity to press restart on timelines for accomplishing goals.

Secret 1. Pressing restart is a special opportunity. Why? Because it is a choice we control.

Unfortunately, for many, attached to every new year also comes an everlasting hatred toward goal setting. It feels among popular culture crashes a wave of broken morale that compromises this commonly celebrated annual chance to build a stronger character in hopes of achieving new and old resolutions.

Secret 2. Contrary to popular belief, I think there stands a psychological pier within each of us stronger than any current of hatred or lost hope. The pier is cemented in the transformation and confidence that will result in striving to achieve and exceed our goals.

After extensive research and analysis that includes an exhaustive comparison and contrasting of reasons why people fail to accomplish their goals, I hypothesize the single most important action contributing to a lack of success stems from either discontinuing or not measuring progress.

If we measure and track what we learn, we grow our knowledge and proficiency in a subject thereby increasing our chances for success. If we measure and track our health, we get better health. If we measure and track our money, we get more money and the benefits that come with it, like more financial freedom and security.

As easy as it may be to express what one wants; arguably it is a more time intensive challenge to develop a clear and detailed plan of how to achieve what we want. That would include defining incremental milestones to precisely measure our progress on our journey toward achieving goals. If we know where we stand relative to what we want to accomplish, we can then better assess whether we should continue our current plan of action or correct it.

Secret 3. We get what we measure!

So start today. Press restart on your goals. Know you have the strength and everything else you need inside you to reach your goals. And, if you measure your progress regularly, you will not only achieve your goals, there is a good chance you will exceed them!

PS. If you are looking for an excellent resource to assist you with your goal setting, Google search Program of Work, also known as P.O.W.