2013 New Year’s Resolutions and Goals
How To Achieve Your Goals and Keep Your Resolutions
Have you set a New Year’s Resolution or Goal? Every year people
all over the world set new goals and make resolutions for the new year, unfortunately
most will never fulfill their promises. In the following text I’ll outline how to
achieve your goals and keep your resolutions this year.
Maybe you’ve
already set your goals, now you must act on them. If you haven’t set any goals,
now is the time, the New Year offers the
perfect time to set new goals! Often, many people set goals or make a
resolution to overcome bad habits or negative behavior. Your goal may be to achieve
more success or increase your income.
Having a goals system will ensure that you
focus your efforts to achieve success. Remember,
a 'goal' is different from a 'wish.' You may wish to be rich, but that doesn't
mean you've taken any practical steps to make that 'wish' come true.
Why should you set goals? Setting goals is the best way
to improve your life. The most common reason for not setting goals is procrastination,
but there are lots of other excuses. Ironically, stopping procrastination is one
of the most popular goals. So, why not get started now?
When goal setting there are about 8 categories that most goals
come from, there are many more, but most can be put into these categories:
- Financial
- Physical
- Spiritual
- Mental
- Social
- Family
- Career
- Habits
Here are the most common personal goals:
- Lose weight
- Stop smoking
- Increase income
- Vacation
- Get out of debt
- Finish school
- Learn a trade
- Write a book
So, now that you
have an idea of the more common goals, why don’t you set your own? It can be as
simple as getting out a piece of paper and a pen. The most important thing is
to get started now. The goals you choose are the ‘what’ you would like to
accomplish. Simply choose 1 or up to 5 goals and write them down. You may want
to do this in a journal or notebook or pin them to the refrigerator.
Be specific
with your goals and be careful to keep your goals simple and to the point,
listing only what is important and realistic to you. If you make too many, you
may get discouraged or have problems focusing.
Once you have
your goals written down, you’ll want to determine ‘why’ you want to accomplish
your goals. This is simply the purpose for accomplishing your goal. Your ‘why’
is imperative and will keep you motivated when you run into roadblocks or get
sidetracked. Be honest with yourself about why
these goals are important to you and why you should do them now.
To summarize, the Goal is ‘what’ you
want to do and the Purpose is ‘why’ you must do this now. Once you determine
mentally what you want to accomplish, you will subconsciously start taking on
behaviors that will bring you to your determined result.
Here are some examples of goals,
specifics, and purposes:
Goal (What)
|
Specific
|
Purpose
(Why)
|
Stop Smoking
|
Decrease gradually and No cigarettes after 6
months
|
To breathe easier and live a longer life
with your family.
|
Lose Weight
|
Lose 24 lbs. this year
|
So you can be more physically fit and live a
healthier life.
|
Write a Book
|
200 page “how to” book
|
To promote a cause and teach others what you
have learned.
|
Save Money
|
$40,000 over 10 years
|
To pay for your children’s college, so they
will be able to get a higher paying job.
|
Give to Charity
|
10% of your earnings
|
To give back and help others because you
have prospered.
|
You should now have your goals and your purpose written down.
Continuing to take action is vital at this point. If you break your goals down
into short steps they will be easier to accomplish. For example, if you want to
lose weight, be specific. Let’s say you want to lose 24 pounds this year, you
could break that down to 2 pounds per month. Or if you want to write a book,
you may write a chapter a month or 2 pages a day.
Getting started requires action steps. So, you may want to journal
or keep track of your daily accomplishments. By tracking your successes you
will build confidence.
If your goal is to stop a bad habit, you will want to think of
ways to interrupt your negative pattern. You will want to create a positive
reinforcement for the negative one. Create a new association that will provide
pleasure for the success.
Over the years I’ve put together a common sense approach for
setting goals and broken it down into easy to follow steps.
Steps for Achieving Your Goal(s):
1. Write down your specific goal and purpose for achieving your goal
a. First handwrite, this will cause you to think and visualize your goal
b. Later you may want to type or print out your goal
2. Plan your goal setting
a. Set a specific date for accomplishing your goal
b. Break your goal down into easily attainable steps
3. Take action toward accomplishing your goal
a. Work toward your goal daily
b. Practice discipline until you form a habit
4. Visualize yourself achieving your goal
a. Play a movie in your mind
b. Watch the movie at night and in the morning
5. Verbalize your goal
a. Say “I choose to earn $ (your financial goal here) per year."
b. Say "I will do this through (your specific plan or job here)."
The most important part of any goal plan is taking action. So, start
now! Keep your mind focused on the above steps and start working towards your
goal.
Close your eyes picture yourself
in the place you want to be. Don't worry
about whether or not it's working or over analyze what you’re doing. Just keep your mind focused on your goal and
discipline yourself to do the steps above on a regular basis.
The following steps will allow you to “really” accelerate your
results:
- Are you going to dream about this or really do
it?
- Really print this out right now.
- Really paste this next to your computer right
now.
- Really follow the steps once a day for 30
days.
- Do it now and don't let anything get in the
way of you accomplishing your goal.
Take action and you will feel better about yourself and others.
You will achieve success!
Until next time,
Barry Page
www.pma101.com
Barry Page is a recognized author and publisher of multiple blogs, websites and videos. He is a leading expert on private banking and a Registered Financial Consultant. He specializes in showing families how to increase their happiness, health and prosperity. His business is based in Ocean Springs, Mississippi and he services clients throughout the country.