Yesterday I had the great good fortune to talk with the CEO of Ray White Ltd about his approach to goal setting. It's coming up the time of year when we start planning for the year ahead and look back over the year just gone, and on this subject Carey Smith had some very interesting things to say.

One of which was his approach to goal setting. Each year when he's on holiday he writes himself a 1-2 page letter about what he sees as being important in the year ahead. Part of the process is opening the letter from the previous year which has been sealed and kept safe by his brother over the intervening 12 months. He likes doing his goal setting this way because, he says, it's easy.

Most of us believe we should track progress towards our goals on a regular basis but Carey Smith's approach is very much hands-off. He believes that if they are truly important, they will be achieved without him having to look over his own shoulder.

Smith divides his goals into family, health, business and financial, a more holistic way of doing it than most methods. He also includes "stop doing" items which in his case this year included not buying a house (somewhat difficult given his profession, I imagine) and going to bed by 11pm.

When he finally does open the previous year's letter, Smith doesn't dwell on it too much because, he says, our past doesn't dictate our future. Our current and future actions do that. And that just may be his most valuable lesson of all.