It’s that time of year again… time to set some resolutions… or do you want to set some goals instead?
What’s the difference?
A resolution tends to feel a bit loose for me. You know I love a little more to get my teeth into when it comes to setting objectives for the year ahead and so often resolutions go by the wayside because I simply haven’t put enough thought or energy into making them. Come March I likely can’t even remember what I said!?
Goals on the other hand I do love to do.
You’re probably looking back at 2017 and there will be goals you hit and goals you didn’t. Just because you didn’t hit a goal doesn’t mean you shouldn’t make more! In fact, really there’s no better time to make a new goal than when the lessons from not achieving the first one are still fresh in your mind.
You want to be setting yourself up for success and setting a meaningful goal for yourself is a great way to do this.
Whether you want an over-arching goal for the whole year or a series of smaller goals, now is likely to be the time to be thinking fresh ideas about what you want the future to look and feel like.
Nothing quite like looking back and realising how fast the last 12 months have gone to get you revved up to make positive changes for the next 12.
So what will 2018 hold for you?
I’ve got a few questions to help you get some clarity and maybe even set a goal or two 😉
Review
- 1. When you think back, what has been your biggest lesson or realisation from 2017?
- 2. What have been your biggest achievements of 2017?
- 3. What are you most grateful for from 2017?
- 4. What did you do differently this year that had a positive effect on how you have lived and felt?
- 5. Who has been the biggest influence or had the biggest positive impact for you in 2017 and why?
- 6. What would you like to have done differently in 2017 and why?
Look Ahead
- 1. How could you have more fun in 2018?
- 2. When you consider how you feel now, how do you want to feel at the end of December 2018?
- 3. What will you do to create more time for you in 2018 and what will you do with that time?
- 4. If you could choose ONE big goal to have achieved by the end of 2018 what would it be and why is it important for you to make this happen?
- 5. What ONE action, if you repeated it every day in 2018, would change your life for the better?
- 6. Who can help and support you in manifesting your goals for 2018?
It’s important to reflect before we set new goals. All too often we can get caught up in the new without taking in the lessons of the old, and they are what give us what we need to be able to move forward effectively.
How many times have you set goals and then set more goals, and so on, always focusing on what’s next? We’ve all done it (and do it!) and yet if you take a moment to simply look back at what you’ve achieved, how that made you feel, how it has impacted you (positively or negatively), how you did it and what difference it’s really made, it really can make all the difference. We start to see patterns that we can use to our advantage to give us the best chance of a win. We also get a chance to give ourselves a pat on the back for a job well done, which is often missed on our mission to leap into the next goal.
For those goals that haven’t quite gone to plan, learn from them. Why did it not happen? Was it the wrong plan, lack of implementation, unexpected roadblocks along the way or something else? There is magic in reflection and learning what changes need to be made. Many famous successes came off the back of multiple failures! (FYI, a great book about this subject is Black Box Thinking – I highly recommend it!)
Whether you decide to set some resolutions or goals for the coming year, I hope you achieve them and I wish for you a year filled with all the important things: happiness, friendship and love and much more besides.