New Year New Goals
“A dream written down with a date becomes a goal. A goal broken down into steps becomes a plan. A plan backed by action becomes reality!”
- Josh Loe
While everyone is beginning the new year spouting off their new year’s resolutions, you should be scheduling your next minor steps to your next major goals! What’s the difference you might be asking? Well, stating a resolution is simply verbalizing an idea or intent. Resolving your mind to attack particular goals is more of a step one action inside of a larger plan. A goal is the desired aim that leads and directs one’s efforts. When setting goals for this year remember to focus on quality verses quantity. Setting 5 to 8 major goals is more likely to yield some success over say setting 20. Goals should be challenging but realistic.
Once you decide what you want to accomplish, visualize it! This allows you to see and affirm your choices habitually and is a mental exercise to be purposeful towards these specific things. Vision boarding your goals is a great practice that I have been using for the past few years and if you are a visual learner it really does wonders! All you need is a simple blank slate (poster board, cork board, etc.), pictures and words that resonate your goals can be purchased, printed, ripped from magazines or even drawn! This is a great activity to do alone, shared with friends as a fun ZOOM gathering activity, or with your kids in your household. It teaches great life skills about accomplishment, and action! If a planner, or journal is more your thing check out @thevisioninitiativeproject on IG. Terri Greenup has a beautifully outlined vision journal that I used myself in 2020. Obviously, some of those goals will have to be rolled over. A planner of some kind should definitely accompany your vision board!
This is why; it’s time to get intentional! Resolutions and goals are concepts, but intentions and plans incur actions! Set an “achieve by” date for each goal in your vision this year, and put steps to a plan of action into motion. Monthly goals work best for me and guide my steps each day towards achieving! If you need smaller increments of accountability, adjust this to weekly! Larger goals may require a zone plan, breaking them down into a 3-4 month time frame to execute. Let your plan guide how you lay out your visualization. They should work together! Speaking as someone with anxiety, a board littered with bright pictures and buzz words will do the exact opposite of focus me. Consider both when creating your board. You can set up quadrants for each goal easily or make thematic zones (physical fitness, personal growth, financial growth, bucket list goals, etc.) Get intentional, get planning, and get yourself in gear!