1. Post something interesting 2-3 times a week, every week for the next 52.
2. Get at least 500 subscribers (currently sitting at 3).
3. Break into Alexa’s top 100,000
4. Make Digg.com’s front page at least once
5. Be invited, or push for a guest post on at least 1 prominent blog.

In my personal life I almost never, ever, set, or make New Year resolutions. The reason is that I try not to limit myself to goal setting at specific points in the year. New Year is the famous one, everybody does it. This year I’m going to loose weight, get a better job, be more successful, or some other completely useless poorly defined goal. For the vast majority, the end of January sees disillusionment and disappointment, as those good intentions fall by the way-side.

Goals, and the setting of them, specifically externalizing them (writing them down, etc..) are probably the most important steps you can take on the road to achieving them. They must be specific, “I’m going to loose half a stone” as opposed to “I’m going to loose some weight”. They must be realistic / achievable “I’m going to increase my income by 5%”, instead of “I’m going to increase my income by 1000%” – although that may well be achievable. Finally they must be measured. Religiously. Rigorously. For if you are not measuring yourself, then how do you know how far you have come? Or how far you still have to go?

Goal setting studies performed at Yale in 1953 and Harvard 1979 (amongst others) provide some real motivation for setting, and writing down your goals. In a study of 1,000 undergraduates at Yale, 84% had no particular defined goals. 13% had goals, and 3% had goals and had written them down. 10 years after graduating, the 13% who had set themselves goals, earned on average, twice as much as the 84% who hadn’t any clear goals. Better than that, the 3% who had externalized, and written down their goals, earned on average 10 times as much as the other 97% combined. Pretty good motivation for setting yourself some goals then.

Time and again setting and measuring oneself has proven a most excellent method of achieving. If you’re looking for somewhere to start in search of this proof, and some inspiration, then sport offers up Lance Armstrong. The worlds most phenomenal athlete. A man, who came back from a probable death at the hands of cancer to win cyclings toughest event, The Tour De France a record breaking 7 times. How did he achieve this feat? A combination of natural talent, the setting of goals and an obsession with data and measurement.

So go figure out some goals, set realistic targets, write them down, and obsessively measure your progress. I can’t guarantee you, or I will get to where we want to be. But I bet we’ll be a lot closer than if we just left them as dreams.