I know all the arguments for January 1 being a day of new beginnings, do-overs, and fresh starts. New Years Day makes a very logical starting point for habits, goals, and commitments. But, for me, this global day of change triggers a “not again” feeling within because of so many past experiences with goals and the failures that follow. Here are just a few examples of goal-setting and failure:

Bible reading: I can’t tell you how many times I’ve tried to read the Bible in a year starting January 1! I’ve read Genesis more times than most scholars. With a 3+ chapter a day requirement, falling just a little behind is rough (as is trying to catch up and get thru Leviticus in one-sitting).

Diet/exercise: It never fails, I’ve always got some plan to drop 10-15lbs (“six-pack by summer” was a 1998 motto…now it’s, “avoid diabetes by December”). I own as many diet books as Oprah…and, I’ve even read them. I lose a few here and there, but I always gain it back.

Reading: One year I set a goal to read a book a week. Seemed realistic at the time, but by the end of January I was still on my first book. I remember one year when I was writing a lot that I determined that I wrote more books than I read. This year I’m still setting reading goals, but I’m choosing thinner books.

Now, I’m throwing blogging into the new year mix of goals! The adventure of blogging seems like it will fall along the same lines as the above three failures but with a public twist. Blogging looks like it will also require intense discipline and consistency goals, but if I fail at this new adventure… it’s much more out in the open than my “regular” failures.

Friends have said, “Doug, it should be easy for you to blog since you’ve written a lot of books.” I don’t see it that way! When I write books I don’t have daily deadlines and I also don’t have to design and administrate a website too. I spent so much time in December figuring out this WordPress site that I didn’t give much thought to blogging. So, when 2011 comes to an it will be a publicly obvious if this new venture leads to another failure (actually, we may even know in a month). I hope not, but I also know myself pretty well…so, we’ll see.

Which one describes you? (1) Mr/Ms GoalsTooHigh, (2) Mr/Ms NoGoals, or (3) Mr/Ms RealisticGoals? Let me know (also, chime in on the poll).