Earlier I discussed how I am making some changes in how I set goals for 2010.  I’m trying to make my goals with very compelling outcomes, I’m creating specific action plans and I am going public with them.  In that spirit I am sharing my goals in three categories (Personal, Business and Health) over the next few days.  These are my Personal Goals for 2010.

Personal Goals

1. Take 10 one day retreats in 2010.
I am generally a go getter, a do-er.  I’m good at knocking things off of my to-do list and getting work out the door.  So much of my energy goes into climbing the tree, I need to have structural ways to make sure that I still want to get to the top of the tree I’m climbing.  I want to always have a clear view of what I am doing and why I am doing it. This helps me to set priorites, and say “no” to good things that just don’t fit in my life right now.

The best tool that I have found to maintain that perspective is to periodically take 6 – 8 hours on my own, away from my house, family, business, and everything to review everything that I have before me, my projects, relationships, tasks and commitments, to make sure that I am doing all that I can to do only those things that are truly important to me; and that I am making acceptable progress on those things.

How I’ll do that: The major barrier to doing this is getting them on the calendar.  I have scheduled a retreat for Jan (the 30th) and I need to add them to the calendar for the rest of the year.  If I create that schedule with my wife we can work together to respect that schedule, or re-schedule when it can’t be kept.

2. End 2010 Debt-free
In 2009 my wife finished a graduate degree, and we had a new baby. In the process we accumulated some debt; consumer debt, education debt, and depleted savings.  In 2010 I’d plan to substantially eliminate that debt.  I plan to retire the totality of our debt (excluding the mortgage) through a combination of reducing expenses and increasing income.  This would reduce our monthly income needs to allow us more freedom to choose how to spend or save our money, and our time.

How we’ll do that: Our family has converted to a cash budgeting system for 2010.  We withdraw cash for our “out-of-pocket” expenses for each month and when the cash is gone, it’s gone.  This will prevent overspending from continuing to deplete our resources.  The business goals, if successfully implemented, should result in income sufficient to retire the debt.

3. Get started on a recipe blog
I’m the cook in my family, and I often invent new recipes.  I have a binder containing these recipes as well as a number of recipes adapted from other sources; many of these are my family’s favorite foods.  I’ve long had a vision of creating a cookbook of these family favorites to give to my kids when they go out on their own, but it’s seemed like a daunting project.  Yet these recipes are a powerful part of our family culture and heritage that I want to pass along to them.

So I’ve decided to start a recipe blog to begin the process of capturing these recipes one at a time.  This breaks the work into bite sized pieces and gets me started on the project at a pace that I can sustain.  In 2010 I’m going to record 20 recipes.

How I’ll do that: As I plan the menu will denote one of the recipes for the blog, As I make that recipe I’ll try to capture the exact measurements and direction, as well as get some pictures.  Over the next week I’ll try to get the blog written and published.

The blog will be up and operational by 3/31/10.

I welcome any ideas or resources that you know of that can further help me achieve these goals in 2010.

You can see my Health and Business goals as well.

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Brad Farris is a small business advisor with Anchor Advisors, Ltd. in Chicago, Il. Since 2001 Anchor Advisors has been helping creative professional firms to grow, by helping them clarify their purpose, get the most from their people, keep their eye on key performance measures, and implement consistent processes. Brad is also the author of The Business Owner’s Champion: 6 Practices to Build your Nerve and your Business.