It’s that time of year again where people set their goals, their resolutions and their strategies for the year ahead. Some might be personal and others professional.

Over the last few weeks I have found some excellent resources to help you goal set, meet your resolutions and work on your various strategies. Below I’m going to share links to some of the best resources I’ve seen on the web (no affiliate links are listed below – just sharing some worthwhile resources):

Goal Setting & Planning

An unusual approach that I really like is Chris Brogan’s three words. Ever since I read about the “three words approach” a few years ago I try and do it myself. The concept is pick three words to guide your goals and actions vs. making one or two lofty resolutions. My three words for this year or Laser, Heart and Write.

Marie Forleo has put together some easy to use tools to help you plan out your goals for the upcoming year and to help you focus on accomplishing your most important thing as well as a nifty yearlong action-planning tool. I love the simple planning template because you can use it for various aspects of your company – editorial calendar, marketing tactic calendar, networking check-ins and much more.

Media, Marketing & Social Media

Derek Helpern’s, How to Get Major Media Coverage with No Connections is excellent! Check out his free Social Triggers Master Class called Social Media Insider – it’s entirely web-based but so far, has some great content. Derek’s high energy and no-nonsense approach makes him easy to listen to and learn from.

A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation is a pretty hefty report prepared by Jeremiah Owyang of Altimeter Group. The focus is to help you get control of your social media before you get overwhelmed and oversaturated. Haven’t read through this in it’s entirety but Altimeter is an excellent group.

If YouTube and video creation is a big part of your marketing this year then definitely check out James Wedmore. He’s making a splash with his YouTube marketing business but he also passes along lots of great advice via his blog posts. And given that Google owns YouTube – your time with James will be well spent. You’ve probably noticed that Google is indexing video more and more and higher and higher on its search results!

The best all-in-one free marketing course out there is by Copyblogger Media. These guys have their game down to a science. Sign up for the course and receive it right in your email inbox.

Business Growth

A former client of mine, Ashley Acker, recently launched her terrific new business called Entrepreneur Jungle. If you’re starting a business or need marketing help check it out. There are loads of free things that can help you get moving in the right direction. Ashley’s content is extremely well thought out and packaged. You can learn so much just from seeing how she markets her own work. But start with her Jungle Survival Kit or by enrolling for her free Wednesday webinars.

There is lots of incredible content out there for free. You can learn so much just by investing some time, if you have it! If you’ve stumbled upon some other great resources, because I’ve merely touched on a few here, share them through the comments section.

Have a wonderfully happy, healthy and prosperous 2012.