If you’re like most people, you are thinking about New Year’s resolutions and goals for 2017. Many people have great intentions in setting ambitious goals, but make the mistake of trying to achieve too much all at once. Instead of setting several goals, it’s better to set just one and focus on one to three actions that you will execute consistently in order to achieve it. For example, if you want to lose 20 pounds in three months, the actions that will make you successful are eating right, exercising regularly, and drinking plenty of water.

According to the book “The 12 Week Year” by Brian Moran and Michael Lennington, you will be more likely to achieve your goal if you measure your execution on these critical actions (leading indicators) than if you simply measure goal progress (lagging indicator) – how much weight you have lost. According to Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, author of the book “Triggers,” you will be even more likely to succeed if you ask yourself daily active questions about your execution progress in the form of the following question: “Did I do my best today to…” and rate yourself on a scale of 1 (worst) to 10 (best). Below is an example of the weight loss goal and daily active questions around action execution.

Goal: Lose 20 pounds within 3 months (Score yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 on the following questions.)

• Action #1: Did I do my best today to eat only nutrious food that will promote good health, high energy and weight loss?
• Action #2: Did I do my best today to engage in physical exercise for at least 30 minutes?
• Action #3: Did I do my best today to drink at least 64 ounces of filtered/purified water?

Tracking these daily actions will help you stay focused and move toward your goal sooner. Thinking in terms of what you can reasonably accomplish within 3 months and tracking your execution progress in this way will help you achieve more in 12 weeks than most people accomplish within a year. Make 2017 your best year yet and achieve more than you thought possible.

 “Adding the words, ‘did I do my best’ added the element of trying into the equation…We may not hit our goals every time, but there’s no excuse for not trying. Anyone can try.” – Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers

 “This active process will help anyone get better at almost anything. It only takes a couple of minutes a day. But be warned: it is tough to face the reality of our own behavior – and our own level of effort – every day.”  – Dr. Marshall Goldsmith, Triggers