Ditch those RESOLUTIONS and set some REAL GOALS!
Why you shouldn’t make New Year’s resolutions, instead you should set audacious goals
In the past, I have always set a few New Year’s resolutions for myself. Maybe it was to lose a couple of pounds, or to start running again, or even just be a better person. It didn’t take long, but those resolutions never really worked. I would give up soon after starting if I ever really got started, leaving a feeling of not having the will power to achieve anything. The truth was that I wasn’t setting a resolution for me; I was setting one that I thought the rest of the world would want. I stopped making resolutions and started setting goals.
Goals are essential in this life to achieve what YOU want and need. There are a few things that I like to keep in mind when I set goals. 7 Key items because there are 7 days in every week!
1. Make at least ? of your goals attainable in the next 1-6 months. By doing this, it helps to keep you motivated. If you need to move that up to day, do it. If all of your goals are completely unattainable then you will lose your motivation and stop trying all together. So make sure that you keep a few goals that will help to boost your motivation levels to the next level.
2. Make at least one goal that is far out there that even superman isn’t sure it can be done. That goal might look like: “I would like to have 20 vacation houses in different countries, and 2 privet jets for myself and my family to travel the world.” That’s just one example. Here’s why you need to set that one crazy goal. It means that you will most likely never achieve it, but if you try to achieve it then you are a lot further than if you never thought about it all. One of my favorite things bring up in leadership coaching is that if you set your goals for another galaxy and you don’t make it, who cares? You still made it further than if you never tried at all!
3. Write your goals down. This is another important part of the process. Write you goals down in several places. Personally, I use a notebook that I usually have on me, another notebook that i keep different notes in, and on a white board in my home office. The two notebooks are just for me. That way no matter which one I have with me I can look at my goals. The reason I use a white board is because then when my family comes into the office, they read my board and ask questions about my goals. It keeps me motivated and hold my feet to fire to stay on my goals.
4. Don’t be afraid to share your goals with others. Again another key part of achieving your goals to have some accountability. When you tell someone your goals and dreams, it brings them to life in a completely new perspective. Let’s say that your goal is to lose weight. If you don’t tell anyone and just start working out, they might be supportive but not as supportive as if you told them what you are really trying to accomplish. After sharing my goals, I have seen friends drop everything and help me stay on track to accomplish my goals; I have also been that friend that dropped everything to help spur the motivation.
5. Be specific when you choose your goals. If you are too broad with your goals then they are too easily achieved, or even worse, you lose motivation because you can’t get to the objective. I’m going to share one of my goals with you for our business: be able to purchase a grill / cook trailer, use it to support our customers, their employees, and our community by June 2020. If our goal was, “buy a grill to give back to our community.” This goal lacks a lot. There is no period, no size of the grill, the intention is there, but all of the details are missing.
6. Set different goals! Don’t just focus on work or personal goals, set both. Make a list of goals for your career or business. Don’t forget to make one extremely audacious, like be the CEO of a multi-100-BILLION $$$ company, or maybe retire by the age of 35, or maybe not work more than 40 hours a week but still make enough $$ to live a good life. Some goals might transfer over to both lists, Retire by the age of 35, or, my career will be so enjoyable that it doesn’t seem like work.
7. Don’t be afraid of your goals. Set some goals that don’t scare you. If all of your goals scare the living crap out of you then you’ll never look at them again. Make sure that you have a good mix of goals that do scare you and those that seem like you can easily overcome and obtain them.
This is just my way of setting goals and keeping myself on track to ensure my success. There are a few more things that you should keep in mind though. Try setting family goals and goals with your spouse. Both of these have been extremely beneficial for myself. My wife and I set goals about 7 months ago and it’s amazing how many 2-year goals we set that are already in full force. It’s also amazing how many 30-day goals we haven’t even started, lol.
When I do anything, I do my best to keep God at the front of it all. That doesn’t mean that I go to church every Sunday, or that I feel that I’m a perfect person, in fact I feel that I am far from the person I need to be most of the time, but that’s for a different blog. Keep your faith in every aspect of your life. For the longest time I thought that, God didn’t belong in my work life or in my goals. He was someone that I talked to when I needed something. I have realized that he is much more important than that, especially to me. Therefore, I make it a point to keep him involved in every aspect of my life, personal and business.
I hope that this helps you to ditch those yearly resolutions that most us lose by the end of January and set some very attainable, and a few not so attainable goals that will really help us change our lives.
Happy New Year and I’m sure that 2020 is going to be a GREAT year.