One advantage of being a Christmas baby is that I get to reflect on the year on Christmas Day so it is possible for me to talk exclusively about the future on New Year's Day.

Instead of resolutions and goals, here are some cautionary statements entering the new year.

a) Don't talk about setting goals until you reviewed the ones you set last year

This insight came to me in a group chat with friends last week.

One guy was asking about what goals would we set for 2019 to which I then asked him what about the goals he set last year. The resulting silence was shocking and on hindsight, quite hilarious. You can almost hear a pin drop on Whatsapp.

It's a classic mistake. Even in business, there is no point setting KPIs if there is no way to monitor it throughout the year. A review will often flag many goals unmet and