Last year, my friend, Peter told me of his resolutions for 2007. Back then, he told me proudly that he has only 2 resolutions – both related to his career. He was very focused on his career and really wanted to move his career forward – big time.

When I asked about goals for other areas of his life, he simply said other areas of his life were fine and there wasn’t any need to set resolutions for them. Although I didn’t agree with Peter, I didn’t pursue the issue with him. I regretted not doing so…

Sure enough, for the whole of 2007, I never saw or heard from Peter the entire year. His attention was all on his work and nothing else. The last time I met Peter’s wife, whom I also know on a personal level, she told me his time was all spent at work and he had even neglected much of his family life. This wasn’t a big surprise to me.

THE DANGERS OF UNBALANCED GOALS

When you set a goal, you are actually committing attention and focus to an area of your life. According to the Law of Attraction, “energy flows where attention goes”. Although I am not a believer in the Law of Attraction, I agree with this statement.

The danger of setting goals in only one area of your life is that all your focus and attention goes there. As such, other areas of your life get neglected. Over the long run, this results in an unbalanced life and it’s your own life that suffers from this neglect in the end.

I know this because I have been there. I was a very career-minded person (and still am, to a certain extent) and I devoted all my time and energy to work. Like Peter, my goals were only about my career. I thought that by achieving top results in my career, I would have it all. Obviously I was wrong.

BALANCE YOUR GOALS FIRST, THEN BALANCE YOUR LIFE

Later, through reading and learning from personal development gurus, I learned to set goals for various areas of my life:

• Career and Work
• Money
• Family and Friends
• Spirituality
• Physical fitness and health

It seems a lot to do, but for most cases, you don’t have to do much – just make sure you do enough to maintain it. For example, for physical fitness, I merely set goals to run at least 2 times a week. Unless you’re aiming to be a top athlete, a goal like this will suffice to ensure that your health doesn’t get neglected due to overwork and stress.

So my friends, in 2008, as you go about setting your resolutions, remember to balance them so that you will lead a balance life. Have a great 2008.

Lawrence Cheok writes about living a balanced life and provides tips to improve your career, relationships and money at A Long Long Road. Other than writing, Lawrence does business development and project management in his day job.