To me this is a magical time of year, as I can start fresh. This time of year is about reflecting on what has been and what you want to accomplish in the next year. To freely listen from your heart and be open to what you will receive in the New Year. You never know what surprises the Universe has in store for you.                                                            

Winter is the perfect time of year to look back over the year and celebrate all of your accomplishment. Just before the New Year a friend and I get together and review our goals from the previous year. I am always amazed at what I accomplished. I pick one hairy goal that scares me, so I can stretch and grow into it. A few years back my hairy goal was to learn podcasting and look at me today. I’m going on my third year and I love it. What I enjoy the most when I interview a guest is that I get to learn new things or look at the topic with new insight.

Here are the steps my friend and I do every year. We set our big goals that we want to accomplish and one scary goal for the year. Then we set our First quarterly goals and from that we set our first monthly goal and from that we decide what our goals are for the week. I think why it works so well for us is that we check in with each other once a week to see what was accomplished that week.

Last year in the second quarter I was dating someone who I felt wasn’t cherishing and respecting me. He kept canceling or had to work or his daughter had some problem. So I wrote in my relationship goal I was to be respected, cherished and honored. What was funny is that the ink disappeared only from that goal and so did he. I think it was a sign for the Universe that the relationship was disappearing. My friend teased me that I wrote my goal in disappearing ink. We had a good laugh over it.

The question to ask yourself is what is one thing you want to accomplish is each area of your life. The categories we use are business, health, fun and sometimes relationship. We have been doing this for over six years now. In the beginning we picked a lot more categories, but have learned over the years less is best. Especially if we want to accomplish our goals. If you are good in one area my advice is not to set a goal around it. For me I’m strong in spirituality. I mediate every morning and do my inner work, therefore I don’t need to set a goal around this, because I already do it. But if you are weak in this area set a simple goal. For relationship I choose to be kind to myself, as in this moment I’m not in a relationship. When I am kind to myself I am happier and that reflects to others. I practice smiling to others and talking to people I meet. When I hear things like, you brightened my day or I’m so glad you came in today, you made my day.  Then I know its working.

Making a goal is very important in trying to create what you want in your life. Just thinking about the goal or the outcome is not enough. Many experts such as Tony Robbins, Terry Cole-Whittaker, Brian Tracey, Deepak Chopra, and many others have written about the power of writing down our goals.

Charles Schwab did this exercise to build his multi-million-dollar business. Every night before he would go to bed, he would write out the 6 most important things to do to move towards his goal. He would do those 6 things first. If he did not complete all 6, he would then take the remaining actions and put them to the next day. So if one day he only accomplished 4, he would then take the remaining 2 and make that a priority for the next day.

Here are four important questions to ask yourself:                                                                               What are the steps that I need to take to achieve my goal?
Why do I want to achieve this goal?
What needs to be released?
What do I need to let go of that is no longer working for me?

The first question: “What are the steps that I need to take to achieve my goal?” These steps will turn into your action plan. For example: your goal is to save $1,200 dollars this year. Your current reality is that you have no savings. Your goal then would to save $100 a month and at the end of the year you’ll have saved the $1,200 dollars.

Taking the action is the most important part of the goal. You need to move toward the goal and get started. The steps are what it will take to succeed. Without the steps you have a goal that most likely will not be achieved. What will motivate you to take the steps is your “Why”

Which leads us to the second question, “Why do I want to achieve this goal?” Your “Why” will fuel your determination to complete it.  Another way of thinking of your “Why” is, what feelings do you need to have to achieve your goals? The feeling or the why needs to be your main focus. This will move you forward into taking the steps to achieving your goals.                                                                                                                                                          

For example:                                                                                                                                            Why: I’ll feel good that I now have a savings. Once you become really clear about what is going to keep you determined, and why you are motivated to move towards the goal, you need to ask the third question. “What do I need to release?” Think of the spectrum of where the goal is and where you are currently, as a road. Put in even more simple terms, point A to point B. What is in the road that will disguise itself as roadblocks?

This could be other people, it could be your own limiting thoughts, it could be fears, or it could be your own beliefs. Maybe you have a belief that you couldn’t possibly ever be able to save a $100 dollars a month or maybe you feel you don’t deserve it. Now’s the time to get really clear about what has stopped you in the past, and what has potential from stopping you now. If you become conscious of the roadblocks, and have clarity that they are there, you can release or avoid them. Example of a roadblocks: Going out to lunch or dinner when you could make a lunch or cook. Buying stuff that you don’t really need.    

6 Goal Setting Steps
The following guidelines will help you to set effective goals:

• Be clear: Set a goal and set a date, so that you can measure your achievement. If you do this then, you’ll know exactly when you have reached the goal and have satisfaction from having achieved it. This really helps me as I know every Monday I have to be accountable for what I said I’ll do. There are many Sunday nights I’m finishing my ‘to do’ list.
• Set priorities: When you have several goals, give each a priority. This helps you to avoid feeling overwhelmed by too many goals and helps to direct your attention to the most important ones.
• Write goals down: This makes them real and gives them more force.
• Keep goals small: Keep the low-level goals you are working towards small and achievable. If a goal is too large, then it can seem that you are not making progress towards it.  
• Set performance goals, not outcome goals: You should set goals that you have as much control as possible. If you base your goals on personal performance, then you can keep control over the achievement of your goals and draw satisfaction from them.
• Set realistic goals: It is important to set goals that you can achieve. You may set goals that are too high, because you may not understand how much skill you need to develop to achieve a particular level of performance. I learned this the hard way by doing an online program. I had to learn click funnels in order to put the program online.

When you have achieved a goal, take the time to enjoy the satisfaction of having done so. Stop and observe the progress you have made towards your goals. If the goal was a significant one, reward yourself appropriately. All of this helps you build the self-confidence you deserve.

What is the one thing you’d like to accomplish this year? Follow the steps we just went over and you to will be successful in achieving your goals.