Most people make new year’s resolutions every year but hardly anyone actually follows through on them.  The fact is that it’s not their fault.  The reason that most people don’t achieve their new year’s resolutions is mainly because they are not structuring their “goals” correctly.

Here is an easy to follow 6-Step Plan to ensure that you achieve your goals in 2012 … and don’t just dream about them.

1. You must make a decision to achieve your goals.

Sounds simple enough, right? Skip this step, though, and you’re doomed before you begin.  A major part of achieving your goals in 2012 begins (and really, ends) inside of your mind.

Napoleon Hill, author of such books as Think and Grow Rich, said that “Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” To me, the most important word in this quote is believe.  Conceiving ideas, dreams and goals is only the starting point.  You must truly believe that you can achieve them.

In order to achieve your goals in 2012, then, you must make the decision that you are going to achieve your goals in 2012. This is the most important part of your success in any endeavor.

Whatever your goals for 2012, decide right now that you are going to achieve them. Decide right now that you are going to take the actions necessary to achieve them. Decide right now that you will not let anything stand in the way of achieving them.

2. Your goals must be specific, measurable and have a deadline date.  

The #1 reason that New Year’s Resolutions aren’t achieved is because they are way too vague.  ”I want to lose weight this year,” “I need to pay off some debt,” and “I will play better golf this year,” are some common goals, yet these are way too vague and have a very low probability of success. With goals like these, how will you ever know if you achieved them?

Compare those to “I will lose 15 pounds by April 1, 2012,” “I will pay off $3,000 of my unsecured credit card debt by March 31, 2012” and “My golf handicap will be 9.9 by August 1, 2012.”  You should be as specific as possible (down to the color, style and options in the car you want, or the exact hotel you will stay in on your vacation, etc.) with your goals, make your goals measurable and always have a date attached to your goals.  That way, when the date comes, you will either have achieved your goals or you won’t.  Either way, you can track your progress and your results because your goals are measurable.

If the deadline date on your goal is further than a month out, I also recommend that you break it down into bite-sized chunks and shorter term goals.  For example, sticking to the weight loss example above, in addition to the “15 pounds by April 1, 2012,” you should also have monthly targets.  For example, “I will lose 5 pounds by February 1, 2012, another 5 pounds by March 1, 2012, and the final 5 pounds by April 1, 2012.”  This gives you shorter term targets to aim for and hit.

3. Stop thinking small and really GO FOR IT!  

The human mind is an amazing problem solving organism.  Give it a problem and it will find a solution.  Believe it or not, most people’s goals typically just aren’t “big” enough.  For 2012, set up some really awesome goals!  Challenge yourself and you will be surprised at how much you can achieve!

Don’t let your conscious, limiting factors stop you from setting up some great goals for the year.  Have you ever wanted to take a month off to travel?  Double your salary?  Go skydiving?  Don’t limit yourself in your goal setting.  You can really accomplish anything that you desire.

Having trouble coming up with some good goals for 2012?  Try this exercise … take out a sheet of paper and make 3 columns: Things I Want to Do, Things I Want to Buy and Places I Want to Go.  Then, brainstorm for 5 or 10 minutes and fill up the columns.  Just write whatever comes to mind.  When you’re done writing, circle the things in each column that you want to do in 2012.  That’s it! You’ve  set up your goals for 2012.

4. Write your goals down as if you have already achieved them, and read them daily!

Goals that aren’t written down are just dreams, desires and wishes.  Do this exercise now … take out a sheet of paper and write down your goals in the present tense as if you have already achieved them on your deadline date.

For example, “I feel great at X weight on July 1, 2012” or “I am so excited that I have paid off all of my unsecured credit card debt on December 31, 2012.”

Your goals must be written down and you should put them somewhere where you can see them all the time.  Your goals aren’t going to do you any good if you write them down and then put them in a file cabinet and don’t look at them for a year.

Print out a bunch of copies of your goals, laminate them, put them everywhere, put a copy in your pocket, in your bedroom, in your office … wherever you are going to see them.

Now, read your goals at least twice daily.  When you read them, really visualize and “feel” yourself having already achieved the goals.  If you need to, close your eyes and touch, smell and feel yourself having achieved your goals.  What will you feel like when you achieve your goals?  What will your life be like?  The more emotion you can bring into it, the better.

5.  Share your goals for success!

One of the main reasons that people don’t achieve their goals is that they have no accountability.  When we were in school, our teachers and parents (and to some extent, our peers) served as our accountability partners.  When I was growing up, if I didn’t get an A in school, I got punished and stuff got taken away.  Since I didn’t like my stuff getting taken away, I tried to get A’s in every class.

If you really want to achieve your goals in 2012, you must set up some accountability with someone that you trust.  Tell your girlfriend, boyfriend, spouse, co-workers, friends and family about your goals and ask them to keep you accountable.  If you can, find someone else that has goals to achieve in 2012 and agree to be accountability partners.  Talk to each other daily or weekly to see how you are each doing.

Better yet, hire a coach to be your accountability partner.  I read the other day that PGA Tour players have multiple coaches (swing, mental, short game, etc.) to hold them accountable for each area that they have set goals in.  This is why people usually work out harder when they hire a trainer.  If you can afford it, hire someone to keep you accountable to your goals in 2012.

Can’t find anyone to be your accountability partner?  I’ll do it!  Call me, share your goals and I’ll hold you accountable.

6. Create a game plan and execute on it every day!

OK … here’s where the rubber meets the road.  Unfortunately, your goals aren’t going to achieve themselves.  Steps 1 – 5 above are great, but without a plan in place, and without daily execution, nothing is going to happen.

If you watch Kobe Bryant (for those of you that don’t know, Kobe is a star player on the Los Angeles Lakers) in his post-game interviews when the Lakers win, he essentially says that they “executed their game plan well.”  If you watch when the team loses, he says that “they did not execute their game plan well.”

The first step for you is creating a game plan to achieve your goals. Whatever each one of your goals is, you can break it down into bite sized chunks that you can execute on every day.

For example, let’s say your goal is to write a book in 2012, your game plan would probably include researching the topic, writing X number of pages daily, editing the book, finding a publisher or self-publishing it, promoting it, etc.  You can then set up deadline dates for each step of the game plan.

The second step, and a critical one, is for you to execute on the game plan every single day.  Execution is so important that we’ve made it our business motto for 2012.  Print out your game plan for each goal and then execute daily.

Since your game plan and goals are all specific, measurable and have dates attached, you can then see, on a daily, weekly and monthly basis, whether you executed on your game plan.

There you have it … in 2012, instead of just having some New Year’s Resolutions and not following through on them, follow the 6-Step Plan above, set up some goals and make them a reality this year!