Goal Setting For The New Year

As the new year approaches, it’s time to assess where you are and decide where you want to be in the new year.  Here is a five step process to help you focus on setting a new goal for next year. 

Figure Out Where You Are

Begin with where you are right now.  Complete an assessment of your life and figure out where you are.  Ask yourself if you are where you thought you’d be.  A whole year has passed.  You may have achieved your goals this past year or perhaps you didn’t quite make it.  Whatever is the case, take a moment to assess where you are with your goals so that you know where you’re starting from in the new year.

Life Areas

Next, consider how you feel about all different areas of your life from personal to professional.  Perhaps you’re feeling happy, exhilarated, and fulfilled.  Or, maybe you’ll feeling stuck, frustrated, and overwhelmed.  Think about what has made you feel this way.  One area may be lagging behind and needs some extra attention.  Life gets busy and it can be difficult to juggle so many things that often one area starts falling short.  Now is the perfect time to focus on improving that unsatisfied area of your life.

Set A Goal

Now that you have an idea of what area you want to focus on, decide what you need to do in order to improve it.  Take into consideration how you want to feel.  Maybe you want to feel happy, confident, aligned, accomplished, abundance, successful, etc.  Set a goal in the area you want to focus on.  This goal could be related to health, professional, relationships, personal growth, etc.  Make sure your goal has some form of measure so you’ll be able to know when you’ve achieved it.  For example, you might want to read 12 books in the new year, go on one date a month with your spouse, lose 20 pounds by the end of the year, etc.  Write down your goal and ensure that it has a form of measure attached to it.

Visualize Achieving Your Goal

Imagine it’s a year from now and the year is coming to an end.  Envision yourself achieving the goal that you set.  Tune into how you feel.  You may feel proud, excited, accomplished, etc.  See who is with you, what you’re doing, where you are, etc.  Look around and take in that massive achievement.  Fully embrace that moment and celebrate it as if it has already happened.  Visualization makes what you want to achieve real and more likely to be achieved because you’ve told your brain exactly what you want.

Have Courage

Lastly, have courage that you can achieve your goal.  So often fear, worry, and self doubt takes over and it prevents you from achieving your goal.  Make a commitment to yourself to not allow yourself to fall into this trap.  You don’t want another year to go by and still be stuck in the exact same spot.  You must have courage to go after your goals and dreams in life.  This builds confidence.  Have the courage to persevere and keep going even when times get tough.  There will be hurtles, set backs, and challenges that test your courage.  But, you can do this.

The new year brings hope, excitement, and light into your life.  Focus on where you want to be next year.  Set yourself a goal, visualize achieving it, and have the courage to go for it.  You can achieve amazing things and next year is no exception.  Get excited about what’s to come, your bright future, and everything that you’ll achieve in the new year.