New Year, New You. This is absolutely possible and you are the only person who can renew and reinvent yourself. With every new year, comes the chance to look back on your last year and set resolutions on how to do/be/get better in the new year. Are you also one of the New Year’s resolutions setters? Or haters? How many people are actually able to keep up their resolutions? Or how many times have you heard or thought: New Year’s resolutions don’t work, goal setting is impossible, I just can’t stay motivated or “It is too hard”? Let me share five simple secrets with you how you will be able to achieve your goals this year and be excited to keep working on them. Yes working. The way to living the life of your dreams is work, but it should be fun, and it is definitely worth it.
For the bullet journal enthusiasts among you, I have included four spreads that you can steal to dream big, plan and achieve your goals in 2019!
Secret #1 Set inspired goals
When you start this process, allow yourself to dream big. Put every single goal, dream or wish you can come up with on a piece of paper, in a bullet journal or your preferred method of noting things down. Make sure though that you write it down. The act of putting words to a page, even if it is in digital form, allows your brain to let go of the thought and stops your mind from spiraling ineffectively about the same idea.
Now, look at your list and assess your thoughts and cross check them with your values and what will really bring you joy and fulfillment. Let go of the goals that you might think you have to strive for, or what you observe others do. Pick the top three that you feel excited about. This doesn’t mean you cannot achieve smaller goals on the side, but if you chose too many projects, you will most likely feel overwhelmed and be tempted to give up. Selecting the most important three goals will help you stay focused and on track. Remember, this is supposed to be fun as well.
Secret #2 Be realistic
While it is great to have big dreams and harbour them, it is also important to stay realistic. I would love to have my own digital product line and sell them successfully to thousands of people, but I realize that I will probably not be able to achieve this in this year. I have a full-time job and a family. It is more realistic for me to aim for creating and launching one digital product this year. This does not mean though you should refrain from setting the bar high. Go ahead and challenge yourself and don’t let fears hold you back. Stay true to your values and passions, consider the time you have available to work on your goals and the resources you can devote to them.
Secret #3 Be specific
Now that you have selected three goals, think about what success would look like. Play out the scenario in your head and try to capture the feeling you have when your dream has come true. Now, write down your three goals and be very specific how you describe them. Avoid any vague descriptions. This is one of the main reasons why most resolutions fail. Let’s say eating more healthy is your goal. What does this look like? Eat fewer carbs, less meat, more vegetables, decrease sugar? Consider what and why this is important to you. When you describe your goal in detail it is much easier to break it into actionable steps.
Secret #4 Take inspired action
How excited are you to start working on your goals right now? Very much? Can you see the steps you need to take to reach your goals and fulfill your dreams? Write down the steps you need to take on your way to success. The more steps you build in for you, the easier the process will become. Even a marathon runner takes each step at a time. Many small steps will bring you to the finish line.
Build in times to rest, to treat yourself for reaching a milestone making sure you have fun along the way. Along the way, have check-ins with yourself: “Does this goal still inspire me”? Circumstances and goals can change along the way. Don’t hold on to things that don’t suit you any longer. Rather adjust and tweak.
Secret #5 Hold yourself accountable
After you dreamed up your top three goals, envisioned success, evoked them using specific words and defined the steps you needed to take, you are now ready to hold yourself accountable.
You can do this in a variety of ways:
- Tell a friend and ask them to hold you accountable and cheer you on.
- Set milestones within a timeline
- Set a to-do list in your weekly bullet journal spread and make sure you work towards them.
- Reward yourself for reaching milestones (i.e buy a set of new brush pens that you are only allowed to use when you have reached a certain point. Make it interesting for yourself)
With each new point, I cannot quite make up my mind which is the most crucial step in the process, probably because they all depend on each other. And this true for this step as well. I am tempted to proclaim this as the most important step.
There will be times where you will want to give up, where you feel a lack of energy to pick up where you left off, where you feel overwhelmed or try to convince yourself that your goal is no longer important to you. This is your mind trying to trick you into going the path of least resistance. Don’t despair, this is normal. Just know that such a phase might hit you, I am in one right now. Push through. Your dreams are worth it!
Are you ready to rock 2019? What will inspire you to take action and hold yourself accountable? In order to achieve your big dreams this year, you will need to commit yourself to your dreams and goals! Work on them every day and you will succeed! You can do it!
