How To Improve Your Goal Setting

This is the time of year many of us sit back and reflect on the past year. We tend to acknowledge all the things we “didn’t do” and will occasionally look at the things we DID do!

That’s why this year it was really important for me to focus on the accomplishments and not the hundreds of oops that didn’t work, yellow lights and speed bumps along the way…

I chose instead to focus on success. You can read my Top of 2013 here.

This year I encourage you to view goals and achieving them a little bit differently then you may have in the past. Be it and call it what you want, goals, resolutions, success plans…

I’m gonna just jump right into it!

Be sure your goal is measurable, and attainable… but maybe even just a little bit of a stretch.

Use the S.M.A.R.T goal strategy.  It’s extremely important to be specific and set a time line to it.

Many people say “I want to lose weight this year”. Those people have less success than those who declare. “By March 1st I will have eaten healthier, exercised 3x a week and dropped one dress size”.   ( Notice the difference?)

Without a destination, there can be no beginning. So yes, goal setting is important, and no it doesn’t only have to be done in the beginning of a new year.

Now, be sure to write it down and have it visible. Make a note and put it on your BR mirror, another in your journal, another on the front seat of your car even. Who cares… just make it powerful!

Corny sounding? Yes. But guess what… it actually works!

What do I mean by visualize and feel? Sit back, relax and really think of how you will feel once you have achieved that “goal” you have declared. Now … realllly feel it. Are you happy? Hell, are you ecstatic? Are you jumping up and down screaming saying “OMG… I did it!!”?  That’s what I mean by “feel” it.

This is a great time to create a vision board even. The more you see and visualize, the more you’ll move toward it.

This is usually where many people get “stuck”. The planning is often difficult when you aren’t sure how to get from step A to Step B, but it is a necessity. But the good thing is even if step A doesn’t work, you can always alter course.

If planning out the entire year has you in a tizzy, ( it happens to me ) then break it down smaller. Plan out just a few months or the first quarter of your business to start with. Remember though, that these steps need to be aligned with that Big Goal you declared in step 1.

Now that you know “what” you want and “how” you plan on getting it… you need to take ACTION. Goals aren’t achieved by simply stating them and writing them down, you still have to actually “do the work”.

No… your desk will not miraculously be clear unless you put in the “work”.  No, people don’t lose 10lbs over night without putting in the work.

Ok. I’ll admit. This one is hard for me too, and one I learned the hard way last year, that’s why I feel compelled to share it with you.

No… the road is never straight. Along the way you will be faced with bumps, grumps, mind-set crap and even a few “failures” to name just a few. But the thing that sets those apart that achieve their goals is they don’t give up! They course correct.

I spoke to a group of women in October and shared a few life stories with them, and I related life and goals to the game of Chutes and Ladders. It was a great visual for me to explain the concept.  The “goal” is to reach 100 at the top of the board and of course we all just want to spin the spinner and keep moving up, up, up towards the top, but sometimes we do things like: steal a cookie from the cookie jar, reading a comic book instead of studying History, or even pulling the cat’s tail. These are choices we make sometimes that make us slide down the chute… BUT it doesn’t mean we can’t course correct and head back up the ladder!

I hope you each all the success you can achieve this year in life, love and business! Now… go gettem!

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