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Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of IHeart Radio.

Good morning.

This is Laura.

Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast.

Today's episode is going to be a slightly longer one,

but rather than interviewing someone else, as I do usually once a week, I am going to be talking

about goals and how to set them and how to structure their pursuit, so they actually happen.

I know a lot of people set goals around this time of year, often framed as New Year's resolutions.

There is something about the fresh start energy of a new year that makes people think they can do new and exciting things.

However, I know there is also a reasonable amount of cynicism about New Year's resolutions. I read a statistic somewhere that 91% of them fail.

Now, I don't know if that is true or not, probably because sometimes these goals are so vague

that I am not sure you'd even know if someone had succeeded.

What does it mean to get in shape or to eat more healthfully?

What would it mean to be in control of your finances or to stop procrastinating or any of the other resolutions

like that. In any case, I know a fair number of people set out to do things and then feel like

they haven't succeeded at doing what they set out to do. This can be frustrating. And in a

worst case scenario can lead to a feeling like life is what it is,

and it is not even worth trying to change things. But I think goals can be incredibly motivating,

and I also think it is often possible to shape life and a schedule to make goals happen.

To do that, though, we need to be careful about how we set our goals, both in how we choose these

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