My Personal Goal for the Year One big, simple, specific goal per year is all you need to lead a life of continual learning and new possibilities.
By Jim Joseph
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
Last week I wrote about how I like to set a big yet simple goal for myself at the beginning of every year. You can click here to read about it.
For me professionally, my goal for 2017 is to go paperless. I want to drop the printouts and the journals and better utilize my electronic devices. Seems like a good goal to help me become even more productive at work, especially given how mobile my work has become. I travel literally every single week.
Going paperless is going to be big for me, but at the same time it's a very simple goal. So simply stated that I should be able to stay on track.
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I also like to set a personal goal every year, and I seek to make that also as big and as simple as possible. I don't think creating complicated goals serves any purpose, and generally the more complicated the goal then the less likely you'll reach it.
So I keep it simple, but I aim big. My personal goal for 2017 sits very close to my heart, and it's something that I have been talking about for years. It's actually about something I regret, and I want to fix it.
I want to learn to speak Spanish again.
At one point in my life, I was fluent in Spanish. After years of course work, I was still using the language at work when I started at Johnson & Johnson. But the problem with language skills is that if you don't use the language, you lose touch with the language. I've lost touch with Spanish, and I regret it.
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I'm still in many situations where I am around the Spanish language…especially when I'm traveling but also where I live in New York and Palm Springs. Spanish is actually a big part of my life, and I want to live that part of my life!
I can still follow a conversation in Spanish, but I can't participate. That really bothers me.
So in 2017, I'm going to change that part of my life and I'm going to relearn to speak Spanish again. I've already researched instructors and am about to line up my first batch of coursework. I want to hit the ground running in January, with a pathway to becoming bilingual. I want to be bilingual, and I want that to be a part of who I am. Again.
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Learning to speak Spanish again is a big goal of mine, and it's very personal. But it's also simple so really if I stay committed to it I should be able to pull it off. I will pull it off.
I'd like to encourage you to do the same. What would you like to accomplish in your personal life next year? Go big, but keep it simple and success will be yours by the end of the year.
Just ask yourself…what would you like to accomplish next year?
