I was taught in my business degree that goals should be measurable, timely and achievable. I am not sure who came up with this idea, but they are a genius.

Every December 31st I think about things I want to achieve in the upcoming calendar year. I ensure that they are able to be done in the pending 12 months and then I write them down. Sadly, each year I manage to fall short on about 2 or 3 of them. But, by writing them down, I am able to keep track of them.

When in Thailand in 2008, I set a list of goals. I managed to get through a bunch of them. But two that I didn’t achieve really bugged me. One was to run a half marathon and the other was to get my open water diving certificate.

I am fresh back from a holiday to Cairns where I took the first steps to achieving both these missed goals. I have signed on for the Blackmore’s half marathon. I have even started a team called Team Awesome which all who are competing are welcome to join. I also went scuba diving. It was so awesome I am now sorting out the full qualification.

Setting goals and writing them down does a couple of things. Firstly, it keeps you accountable to yourself. It is easy to forget a few of your goals and by the time you recall them, it is too late. And it also allows you to ensure you achieve things each year.

Self discipline is not one of my greatest attributes. I am on the BRW Top 100 Procrastinators list. If they ever publish it, expect to see me near the top.

To help arrest this issue, I have started writing lists of measurable, timely and achievable goals.

It does scare me that one day I could look back at my life with a list of things I never got around to doing. So why wait til you are old and grey to have a bucket list?

I have got mine started already!