Christmas is two days away and it's that time of the year when we tend to reflect on the past 12 months and think about the new year ahead. 

I'm currently in Peru, away from my normal day-to-day and off work which gives me the space to think about what I want to achieve and focus on in 2020. 

For every new year, I set goals. 

To give you some examples, my goal for 2018 was to publish my first book. My goal for 2019 was to find a new home.

I've achieved both of these. 

Success, to me, is a matter of goal-setting and planning of how you'll achieve those goals. 

But also on being realistic about what you can do and can't do - as you can see, I only set one key goal for the year. Do I want to do a million other things? Of course, but I prefer to stay focused on the one big thing that will make the biggest difference in my life. 

I recently watched a 10-minute TED talk which clearly explains why setting the right goals is the secret to success for companies. 

It's also about setting the right goals for the right reasons. 

But to do this, you must first answer the question why then the what and then the how.

Why in businesses is about the sense of purpose which unfortunately many companies lack. I'd go to say that quite a few people haven't discovered theirs either. 

If we think about individuals, your why is your passion. I've always said that you can be successful in any career as long as you're passionate about what you're doing. 

So as we're approaching the end of 2019, think about what audacious goals you want to set and most importantly execute on. 

It's one thing to want something badly and hope to achieve it, but it's a totally different story how you go about it and the effort that you put in to get there. 

I've seen far too many people aiming for something but giving up or not putting the effort and then being disappointed. 

As I said, to achieve your goals and dreams, you must not only define them but you must have a plan of action on how you'll get to them, a plan that you follow and a plan that you measure on an ongoing basis. 

That's exactly what companies do and it doesn't need to be very different than what you should do. 

So as final advice write down your values, your goals and your plan to achieving them and ensure that they are specific and time-bound, aggressive yet realistic, measurable and verifiable. 

Good luck! 

What are your goals for 2020?