Is this you? You have customers to satisfy, professional goals to deliver on and your personal goals shoved to the back burner... and you and your friends, colleagues, clients and vendors are already talking about 'next' year. I'll admit, I've had a few of those days that stretched to weeks with my attention caught in that tension.

If you cannot get a handle on the tug of war for your attention, your future is at risk! The truth is, you will always be bombarded by more information, more ideas and more opportunity than you can follow through on - that's success!

You're busy. Your eye was on the end of your business year. And you may even feel stalled - your attention is caught between solidifying your results and the knowledge that your future success needs your attention too!

I don't want you to spend even one more day in that whirlpool. So how do you get out of overwhelm and back on track? Here are the 7 keys that will work for you personally, for your team, and for your organization:

1. Revisit Your Vision

Vision is the spice that carries us forward. It's the touchstone that helps us cut through personal and professional confusion and maintain our momentum. The first step to staying on track is to take the time to write down your vision - what are you trying to achieve? Post it where you'll see it regularly. And equally important, share your vision with others! Let your passion and purpose energize others to join you in working toward that result.

2. Review Your Results

Here's a conundrum: Ignoring the past is throwing away valuable learning. Chewing on the past is a recipe for stalling out. The challenge is to understand the results you achieved and what actions and events contributed to them. Measure them. Record them. Post them! These are your achievements - pause to appreciate them and use that acknowledgement to propel you forward by setting new goals.

3. Reset Your Goals

You had goals. They may have been rigorously designed or off the cuff, but you had them. That was then - this is now! In this time, in this place, with your learning from the past year, set fresh goals. That means don't just update the old ones! What new, measurable goals will specifically move you toward the results you want to create this coming year? Now, make sure that everyone who needs to put effort into planning activities to achieve them knows them.

4. Craft Your Plan

Plans are road maps, guidelines, and supply lists for the journey you're heading out on. Be certain they are measurable, and have deadlines for when you intend to reach them, and have people assigned to accomplishing them. Create a plan because it will keep you and your team heading in the same direction to the same destination. Plans and goals change as external circumstances change. As learning takes place, as new opportunities create short cuts to success. Adjust the plan as a team to keep everyone on track.

5. Create Accountability Buddies

If you're in an organization you likely have people you are accountable to. If you're a solo-preneur or the head of your team or company you face the challenge of keeping yourself on track with your plan. Identify at least two people you respect. Invite them to buddy with you and set a meeting to lay out your goals. Then set at least 2 more meetings in the coming year to update them on your progress. You can offer to play the same role for them. Now that's a great New Year's gift!

6. Cultivate Appreciation

We all become myopic on a day to day basis as our sight narrows down to our daily tasks. We're so focused on getting things done we loose track of our Vision, the purpose driving our life. Mark a day each month on your calendar for acknowledging what you have created and achieved. Use that appreciation to shape the world around you for others - take regular action to share it with those in need by giving of your time, your attention or your profits to help others.

7. Calendar Check-ins

What good are the first six keys if you use them once and forget them? You'll be just as stalled this time next year! Pull out your calendar. Right now! Make 12 appointments with yourself to check your progress, 3 with your accountability buddies to review it, and 12 dates for the actions you'll take to shape the world for others so that you keep these keys in mind throughout the coming year.

Bonus - Make it easy!

Put 15 minutes a week on your calendar to sit, uninterrupted, and look at this list. It will get you shifted and back on track in no time!

Copyright (c) 2009 Linda Feinholz