Like most, when you think back to the beginning of this year I bet you set yourself many New Year goals.
Maybe this was the year where you were finally going to lose weight and get fit, start your own business, get promotion at work, or possibly meet your dream partner.
Well, with this year nearly coming to a close, how did you fare?
Did you action them and see them through?
Did you achieve them relatively easily and so set more challenging goals for yourself?
Or did you just bomb out and end up accomplishing nothing or very little of what you thought you could?
If you’re in the latter then don’t beat yourself up. Recognizing these shortcomings is the first giant step toward creating positive change in your life.
The problem with New Year goal setting is that we always make initial promises to ourselves that things will be different.
We promise to ourselves that we’ll be more focused, disciplined, and motivated toward accomplishing our goals, yet within a couple of months or even weeks we’re repeating the same behaviors that have brought us so much disappointment and failure in the previous years.
The great Albert Einstein famously said “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.”
How can you create change in your life and accomplish more of your goals if you keep acting and behaving in the same way?
Your results will change when you change.
If you really want to accomplish your New Year Goals you need to and must be willing to take a different and more effective approach.
Throughout the year we all at some points set ourselves goals, big and small, so we don’t require the start of a New Year to pull out our goal-setting caps and writing pads.
However a new calendar year does have the psychological effect of giving us more focus, motivation; and in some ways an opportunity of wiping the slate clean and giving us a fresh new start after our failings the previous year.
This attitude is particularly prevalent with ‘serial goal-setting failures’, however goal accomplishing, high achieving individuals never look for fresh starts; they just build on their past successes, creating more and more momentum thereby achieving bigger and better results.
So do you want to kick the habit of using the dawn of a New Year as a time to wiping the slate clean and starting afresh and instead set yourself new and exciting goals that will see you continually moving forward to experience greater results in your life?
As I mentioned earlier, the reasons why so many of us fail in ever realizing the New Year Goals we set is because we follow the same old approach in the form of our behaviors and actions.
This New Year, let’s turn over a new leaf. Let’s start applying a new approach that will see you continually moving forward day after day, month after month, year after year towards the accomplishment of your most cherished goals.
Here are the action steps to achieve your New Year goals and produce success in your life:
1) Don’t Bite Off More Than You Can Chew:
Start out small. Pick small goals that you can achieve in a short space of time. Once you have accomplished them you can then create others for yourself.
Also limit yourself to 3 or 4 goals at a time. Anymore could potentially overwhelm you and also result in you losing focus.
2) Write Your Goals Down
Putting your goals on paper is great way of staying focused and motivated on achieving them.
Writing them down also gives them more clarity and purpose of what you want to achieve and where you want to go in life.
3) Share It With Someone
Revealing your goals to a close friend, family member or mentor will make you more accountable and involved in seeing it through.
Telling someone will also incentivize you to go all out to achieving you goal, so as to avoid the embarrassment of having to admit to them that you didn’t stick with your plan.
4) Post them.
Pin up your goals in a place where you will see them regularly i.e. Your refrigerator door, your bathroom mirror, or above your PC screen.
Continually seeing your list of goals will serve to remind you what you of what you’re aspiring to achieve and going after.
5) Read them Aloud.
Make it a ritual of yours to read your goals out loud at least once a day. Read them with emotion and feeling and also try to visualize your success of achieving them.
Doing this will again keep you motivated and driven, but it will also serve as way to imprint your subconscious mind of what you want to achieve in your life.
6) Take Action
Each day take inspired action that will ensure you keep moving forward toward your goal. Every step you take will bring you closer to what you’re after in life.
7) Review Your Progress.
Each evening review your goals and ask yourself whether you did everything possible during that day to bring you closer toward what you want. If you see that you haven’t, then make the necessary adjustments the following day to ensure your actions are as productive as possible
8) Seek Out An Expert
An expert can be a coach, mentor or simply a friend who’s achieved the goals and successes you’re striving for.
Having someone like this you can call upon will help you to deal with setbacks, challenges and mental blocks that you will often be confronted with. They will also keep you focused and motivated on your goals.
9) Affirm Your Success
Create positive affirmation statements that you can use to replace the nagging negative self-talk that you can often hear in your head.
When you become aware of a voice in your head that questions or doubts whether you can achieve the goals you’re striving for, immediately replace it with a clear positive affirmation statement
10) Reward yourself.
When you’ve arrived at a milestone or achieved a particularly defined goal, remember to reward yourself. Ensure you celebrate all your successes whether big or small. This will make you feel good about yourself and inspire you to go on to achieving greater things.
11) Achieve More
Finally, once you’ve achieved your goals and given yourself a sufficient reward, immediately set new goals and simply repeat the process.
As I mentioned at the top of this article, high achievers build on their past successes so that they can go on to achieve even greater results.
Follow these eleven steps to success and achieving your New Year goals and I’m certain you will be celebrating an approach and formula that will bring you endless results not only for next year, but for years to come.
