One good way to plan for a purposeful year is to set goals that will enable you to accomplish the vision you have for your year ahead. Make sure your goals are SMART:

• Specific: General goals are good start, however try to make goals as specific as possible.
• Measurable: Goals must be measurable so you can monitor your progress as you work on them.
• Actionable: Goals are designed to involve action; they show reflect the need for something to be done.
• Realistic: Your goals must be in touch with the reality around you.
• Time-targeted: Every goal needs to have a deadline; a time you expect for it to be completed.

One of the problems with New Year’s resolutions in general is that they usually are not SMART goals. To “lose weight, save more money, cut excess spending, read more books, etc.” are all worthwhile endeavors, but they are not SMART goals. How much weight will I lose and by what time? How often will I read and for how long? How much do I want to save, and what am I willing to sacrifice to achieve this goal? Our goals certainly need to be worthwhile endeavors, but they also need to be Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time-targeted in order to help us live purposefully.

Once you visualize your year ahead, set SMART goals to help you achieve that vision by living with purpose!