I am a goal setter. I realize lots of people aren’t and some have pretty strong feelings against New Year’s goals saying they don’t work. And while I cannot disagree, still I set goals.
I set a half-dozen personal goals last year and I completed 0% of them. I even took an online course about goal setting and still 0%. Why? I forgot. I got busy. I made excuses. I found them too hard. I didn’t want to make the changes. In other words, I set them and never really did anything to move them forward. Till this week when I thought, “hey, what happened to those goals?” 0% success rate happened, that’s what.
I’ll be honest, I felt pretty down. After seeing this, I decided to become one of those people who doesn’t set goals. After I gave up, I had a couple of days when I felt disenchanted, discouraged, despondent. But then I thought, “Nicole, you don’t give up! When the going gets tough you don’t leave. You are tenacious!” This is about 80% true, honestly 20% of the time I run for the hills but, after I worked through my discouragement I decided to try again. Here is what I did:
- I reviewed last year’s plan. I asked myself what was worth moving to this year’s list & what wasn’t? What jumped out at me was less the goals I didn’t reach but the previous years (2014) accomplishments. Even though I felt like I got anything done in 2015, I decided this was a good way to end this year too. What did I accomplish? So I made a list of what I had done and included that at the start of this year’s journal.
- I figured out a way to keep my goals daily before me. I wasn’t sure how to do this but after doing a bit of research I decided on a vision board. The idea of a ‘vision board’ has always seemed ridiculous to me but the process of finding photos online that symbolized my goals was fun and encouraging. I printed out a collage of all the photos and taped it into my planner. I also used the photos as screen saver images so that I see them throughout the day.
- I strengthened my organization and accountability. I bought a new planner and a new journal that I customized with tape and stickers and checklists. I made space to include my goals and created a larger chart (goals along the way and a place I could record how I am doing) for my planner. I updated my Way Of Life app to reflect the small daily actions that will move my goals forward.
- I got help to support me in achieving my goals. I find I do better if I receive support. How I had done this is through audio books and podcasts. This year, I have added a 30-day course. The idea of the course is to pick one goal for 30 days – mine is to walk 8000 steps 30-days in a row–and to build upon that quick win. The course has an online Facebook group too!
So, here is to the New Year not giving up. Here is to 2016!– Nicole
You inspire me!