How To Set and Achieve Your Goals in the New Year

“What you get by achieving your goals is not as important as what you become by achieving your goals.”  – Henry David Thoreau

As we approach the New Year, 45% of Americans will set a New Year’s resolution.  The most common resolutions involve losing weight, getting organized, and spending less and saving more money.  The bummer is that only 8% of those will be successful in achieving their resolution.  Only 8%!

The dictionary defines resolution as a firm decision to do or not to do something.  Whereas, a goal is defined as the object of a person’s ambition or effort; an aim or desired result.

In years past I have resolved to exercise more and boy oh boy, those first three or four weeks were awesome!!  Next thing I knew excuses would slip in as to why something else was a better use of my time.  Sometimes that “something” was nothing but catching the latest episode of House Hunters International!

What went wrong?

Most people who fail in their New Year’s resolutions set unrealistic goals and/or expectations and oftentimes resolve to do something that they are not really ready to do.  In the case of my failed resolution attempt, it was not taking into account the type of exercise that would be fun and motivational for me, and setting overambitious, unrealistic goals—a surefire way to burn out.

As Thoreau points out in his statement above, it’s what you become by achieving your goals that is important.

We all want to be the best version of ourselves and lead meaningful lives, right?  If so, we must first get serious with deciding on what it is that we will resolve to do to become that best version of ourselves.

How do we do this?

We set goals that get to the heart of who or what we want to become.

Following are some tips and points to consider as you set your goals in an effort to be the best YOU for the New Year and beyond!

REFLECT on the past year—the good, the bad, and the ugly.  What were you most proud of, what did you enjoy the most, what failure can you learn from, what helped you to become more of the person you want to be?  Reflection will help you to examine and learn from your past experiences in order to fine-tune your future steps.

DON’T COPY someone else’s goals just because you think they’re awesome.  It’s ok to look to others for inspiration, but it’s critical to set goals that are realistic and unique to you.  As Oscar Wilde put it, “Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.”

BE INCLUSIVE.  It’s important to give attention to all areas in your life when setting goals.  If your goals are all centered on finances and you ignore the relationships in your life, then you will never achieve a life of balance or be the best version of yourself.  I broke down my goals this year into four categories: Well-being (includes exercise, diet, and spirituality), Relationships, Business, and Financial.  I then included 3-5 goals under each category.  Be careful about setting too many goals—overwhelming yourself like this can cause you to abandon ALL your goals.

THINK SMART.  S.M.A.R.T. goal-setting is a method used to define and break down goals in the following way: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.  Click here for an in-depth post I wrote about using this method.

WRITE YOUR GOALS DOWN and you will be 42% more likely to achieve success with those goals.  Enough said.  Click here to check out Dr. Gail Matthews’ research on the subject.  By the way, I wrote my goals in a journal a friend gave me for Christmas and then I use this goal-setting worksheet I created to work on the details.

SHARE WITH SOMEONE YOU TRUST.  I am a firm believer in having an accountability partner for certain goals.  This person can be someone actively involved in helping you to achieve your goals or they can be someone you periodically count on to bounce ideas off or receive a word of encouragement or advice from.  Please choose this person carefully–forget about the “smoke-blowers” and the naysayers and choose someone who has your best interest at heart.

BELIEVE IN YOURSELF!  You are your best advocate.  Don’t let negative self-talk make you believe something that is not true.

Wishing you a New Year filled with blessings!

One last thing…I’ve got some great stuff planned this next year for my blog. Don’t forget to subscribe so you don’t miss a thing!  Just enter your email in the box above or below this post and you will receive new posts via email each week.

Jill xx