With the new year just around the corner, many folks are setting business goals or making resolutions for the new year. But many, and myself included, often set goals which are unattainable, or we forget about them and so they never are accomplished.

As I'm looking back at mine I realize that I have not kept over half my resolutions, and the reason they were never accomplished is because they were not focused, and I did not have an action plan on how I would achieve those goals. You can set all the goals you want, but if there is no action, they will never be achieved.

For example, my one goal was to not eat fast food...well perhaps I should have had an action plan that said I will cook more, or go grocery shopping every day. Obviously those things would have helped to deter me from eating so much fast food. But I had no such goals and therefore I failed.

And so for the new year I have come up with some strategies to help me come up with a clear set of goals, and action plans that will help me to succeed and help me to stay focused in the coming year.

Here are the strategies to help you to set goals for success:

1.) First and foremost you need to set an ultimate life goal. Where do you want to be in life? If you had all the money in the world, where would you go and what would you do? If you had all the health in the world what activities would you participate in, and so on and so forth.

2.) The next thing to do is break down the ultimate life goal into smaller goals. These can be goals which you can expect to achieve in one year or longer, but they all need to be goals which will help you to achieve your greater goal.

List the ones which you can expect to take longer than a year on the same page as the ultimate life goals.

Then start a new page for what you want to achieve in the coming year. Set daily, weekly and monthly goals to help you achieve the ultimate goal.

3.) Think about each smaller goal as you write it down, and how it will effect your ultimate life goal. Will it be a positive, negative or neutral effect. Any goal that will not have a positive effect on your ultimate life goal should be scratched off. Even if it is something fun or interesting should be scratched off the list, as hard as it may be.

For example, let's say your ultimate goal in life is to be as healthy as you can be, so you can outlive all your enemies; then you would set smaller, action plan goals to work out 3-4 times a week, and only eat healthy foods. You would not (or should not) set a goal to win the pizza eating contest as that could leave you feeling rather sluggish, and you could even get sick.

4.) Now that you have a clear idea of what your goals are, you need to put them into action and work on them everyday so that you don't forget them.

If your goal is to lose weight, but you don't want to go to the gym everyday, then set a goal to walk around the block on days when you don't go to the gym. Whatever it is, it doesn't have to be big; as long as you take a small step everyday towards the ultimate goal.

5.) Meditate on your ultimate goal every morning when you get up, and at night before you go to sleep. Meditating on them will help you to see a clear picture of where you are headed, plus it will bring to mind other tasks which you will need to accomplish in order to accomplish the greater goal. It will also help you to stay focused and motivated.

6.) Set aside some time each day to brainstorm and come up with a new way to help you to achieve your greater goal.

If you want to achieve financial freedom by making money online, then make a list of ways you can make money, and add to it daily.

7.) Set aside some time each day to learn something new; if you already know how to make money on eBay, find out how you can make money with blogging, and so on. Use the list in step 6 to help you decide what you need to learn.

8.) Work on your goals as much as you can. If that means sacrificing your favorite shows every now and then, then so be it. In the end when you have reached a satisfying level of success it will be worth it all.

9.) Surround yourself with like minded people. You need to be around people who will support you and help you along the way. Plus you need to be in a group where you can help others as well. Whatever you learn, or achieve means nothing if you keep it for yourself. So pass it on.

10.) Last but not least, keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath begins every Friday at sunset and ends on Saturday at sunset. Setting this time aside to rest from your work will give you a renewed energy that will more than make up for the time you spent resting.