Here is a little bonus for my friends who can't greet the new year without some resolutions and goal setting. If you can master this process you can use it to accomplish any goal.
Step 1: Pick one thing you want to accomplish in the next 30 days. It must be measurable, like write a chapter of your novel or lose 5 pounds. Ask yourself why you want to attain this goal? Are you willing to do what it takes no matter what? Who will you be accountable to? Write the answers down. You will want to refer to these during the next month as you work towards the goal.
Step 2: Decide how you will need to think and feel to accomplish your goal. This is not how you will feel when you accomplish your goal. This is the feeling you will need to cultivate while your are working towards your goal. Spend some time on this step. When you try to go after a goal without considering what feeling you will need to feel during the process, and what thoughts you must have about your goal to create those feelings you will be relying on willpower alone and white-knuckling through the whole month and that will make the whole process much more painful than it has to be, and more likely to be unsuccessful.
Step 3: Brainstorm all the obstacles that might stand in the way of your goal This step is critical because advance planning is necessary to overcome the obstacles that will inevitably come your way. There will always be obstacles. Repeat that again. There will always be obstacles. Nothing has gone wrong. An obstacle could be your full-time job, the need to supervise your child's remote schooling, or your spouse telling you that your goal is silly or that you can't achieve it. Write them all down. Our brain's natural response to an obstacle is "It's too hard" so we swerve and do the easy thing. And then we give up.... Knowing what the obstacles are in advance helps you to stay the course.
Step 4: Come up with the strategies that will enable you to overcome the obstacles. Go through each of the obstacles you have written down and determine what you will do when that obstacle pops up. Get creative. This is you, working out the exact pathway to success.
Step 5: Schedule your plan and commit. Write down on your calendar the steps you are going to take to achieve your goal and how you are going to deal with obstacles. And commit to it 100%. Remember, you are capable and you have your own back. If you have scheduled time to work toward your goal you need to use that time only to work on your goal. The only exception is if an ambulance needs to be called.
Committing to a goal 100% does not mean that the path to the goal is direct or without any missteps along the way. Committing 100% mean that you keep moving toward the goal, even if you have a day where you didn't write a word or you ate food you didn't plan to eat. Mistakes are ok. They don't mean anything about you as a person.
If you try this process and you get stuck, dm me or shoot me an e-mail and I will get you unstuck.
