I’m not the sort of person who sets myself goals because I believe that settings goals is practicing failure. I would prefer to think of my life as a work in progress or a continuous cycle of improvement. Just because I’m doing something well today doesn’t mean I can’t do it better tomorrow, or be ready for a new opportunity.

Your thinking & attitudes should never be limited by a milestone or goals. That sets a stage for u proposition nderachievement or limited horizons. If you are focussed on a goal, you could miss a better opportunity. Total focus might achieve short term goals like a certification or an exam result but life isn’t a short term.

For example, whatever goals I might have set for Packet Pushers Podcast, I could never have imagined that we would exceed a 1 million downloads in 2012. I mean, Packet Pushers podcasts are downloaded on average 2000 times a day! Hard to imagine or plan for that.

I aim to achieve excellence every day and at everything. There isn’t a single goal I could set to achieve that.

OK, that sounds like I’m a tosspot, but hey, that’s what I do so I’ll own it.

Here is a Mind Map that I put together to consider what my “resolutions” are for the new year. These are ‘things’ that I need to work on, attitudes I need to change, rules to judge life choices by, and create a good outlook on life.