You followed my advice and waited a few weeks before setting goals – no rushed New Year’s Resolutions that have already been dropped. It’s late January 2017. You are looking at the year ahead, and wondering what it has in store for you. You have reflected on last year – it wasn’t a great one. You are hoping that this year will be better, but hope isn’t going to improve things for you.
If this sounds like you, then there is one thing that you need to take on board – you are the only person who is responsible for changing your life. If you want things to improve, then no matter how much you wish, pray or simply hope, it is up to you plan and take action.
At this time of year there are many people in the same situation. Don’t get to the same time next year and wonder what happened to the past 12 months, again. Take ownership of your life, plan what you want to realistically achieve, and set goals accordingly.
How to Plan Your Goals
Put aside an afternoon, maybe even a full day if needs be. Decide what you want your life to look like. Make it as perfect as can be, but also realistic. It’s no good saying you want to live on a tropical island sipping cocktails from the swimming pool of your beach front mansion, if you are an admin clerk in an office. Unless you have a lottery win (chances are one in how many millions?) or some distant relative leaves all their money to you and you find out they were a billionaire, it’s not going to happen.
I’m not saying don’t think big, because I want you to think big. I want you to plan to change as much of your life as you feel you need to, to make you happy. But instead of the unrealistic situation above, how about planning a promotion at work, with a salary boost, which will enable you to upgrade your home? If that is more possible, then you need to plan how to achieve that.
Everybody has goals, both big and small, but some people never plan them properly. If you truly want to be happier and more fulfilled, you need to have the right attitude and mindset to plan and follow through on those plans.
So, grab yourself a drink, find somewhere quiet without disturbances, and grab a notebook, laptop,
or drawing pad.
Importance of Visualizing Your Desired Results
Every goal starts from deep within you, a desire to have something more, something better. In order to keep you on track with your goal, you need to find your passion for that end result. You want a job that means you don’t work weekends? Then visualize how you will spend your weekends – will you be re-discovering art which you haven’t done as a kid, going travelling on city breaks with your best friend, joining your local sports team and enjoying being part of a team whilst you get fit? It could be any number of things, but unless you think about how it will change your life, and really feel the passion of doing these new things, then you won’t push yourself to seek a new job.
If your desire for your end result is weak, then you are less likely to have the impetus to keep on track with your goals. So when you do this exercise, make your dreams really shine. Instead of saying I want to lose weight, say I want to lose 7 pounds as I know I will feel healthier, I will have more energy and I will be happier in myself, thereby attracting happier people and enjoying life to the full. I hope you’ll agree that the second description looks much more likely to push you to success.
By putting passion into your goals, you will be training your mind to always think of the best actions to take in order to successfully achieve your desires. It will probably help you to picture yourself having completed the goals successfully, enjoying the fruits of your efforts.
It may well help you to achieve this by creating a board with pictures and words that will guide you through the weeks. Get hold of some magazines and snip out inspirational images, search the internet for examples, and let your imagination take control. Remember to think big for your inspiration, even if your goals are not as big, as the pictures you choose will help keep you motivated.
Creating A List Of Steps To Success
In order to create successful goals, you need to break them down into steps that will ultimately lead to your main goal. This is known as goal chunking – it’s a way of making a big goal possible by making lots of smaller goals along the route.
Imagine you are a sedentary office worker, whose main exercise each day is the ten minute walk from the station to your workplace, but you want to run a marathon. Of course, you can’t just go out and start running 10 miles in preparation for your big event – you are more likely to cause yourself major injuries.
Instead, you will need to plan lots of steps, depending on the timeline you have. First you will need to buy yourself some decent running shoes, possibly seek medical advice, take your first steps out the door, plan runs for several times a week, slowly increasing the distance. There’s a good chance you will want to incorporate other forms of exercise too, to help alleviate boredom. Don’t forget to test yourself by entering other runs too, from 5k through 10k and half marathons. As you can see – every big goal has many steps to success.
In order to make these steps lead you to your big goal, you also need to be as specific as possible. So instead of saying run three times a week, you will need to say something like in week 6 run Tuesday for 3 miles, Thursday for 5 miles, and a longer run on Sunday for 8 miles. In week 8 this will probably be increased mileage towards the goal of a full marathon. You will probably also want to plan rest days, maybe some yoga and stretching on the days in between runs. Don’t forget to be specific when it comes to cutting down the calories and alcohol too!
Be Specific About The Benefits
As well as noting the steps involved to reach your goal, it’s important too to list down the benefits
(and also consequences). Using our example of running a marathon, what benefits can you think of? Obviously you will get fitter, improve your body shape, be healthier. You will be able to see different parts of your town if you vary routes (I’d recommend this, to alleviate boredom). If you drive out to nearby villages you can explore different bits of the countryside that you may not have seen before. If you decide to join a running club, you will probably make new friends.
What about consequences? Well, if you gave up running before you got going, you will easily slip back into your sedentary ways. You may end up putting on even more weight. You will have a feeling of despondency brought on by having given up.
Maintaining The Right Attitude
If you want to achieve your goal or goals, then you need to adopt the right attitude, and maintain that all the way to completion. There are three main things that will keep you on track – consistency, patience and discipline.
- Consistency is key as you will need to keep putting in the effort towards your goals. It’s no good working hard towards them for two weeks, then taking a week off. Consistent effort will become a good habit, and good habits lead to success.
- Patience – having patience will enable you to not give up too early, but to continue in the knowledge that you are nearing your goal every day. With patience you will not take the easy route, but await the right opportunity that will get you to your destination.
- Discipline – with discipline you will forego immediate rewards that are detrimental to your goal (slice of cake, anyone?) in order to achieve what you truly desire.
You may wish to have someone that you are accountable to. Maybe your partner or best friend will regularly check on you, ensure that you have adopted the right attitude, and are successfully working towards your goals. They may be able to motivate you too when times get hard or difficult. As time goes on you may want to adapt your goals, and having someone who you are accountable to can be great as you can talk over your new ideas with someone else’s opinion to assist you.
Are You Ready For The Year’s Goals?
So, what plans are you making to reach your goals? What goals will you decide to set? I’d love to hear them, so please leave a comment. I hope this helps you on your way to a better 2017!