Inner Beauty Workshops ~ Strategies for Setting and Attaining Goals

Happy New Year!!!!  Did you make any resolutions to follow throughout the New Year?  Do you find it easy to set goals but hard to carry them to fruition?  Do you think setting goals is a waste of time and you are setting yourself up for failure and disappointment?  I enjoy making goals for myself each New Year.  Do I usually attain my goals….Yes!  How do I accomplish this?   By following some simple rules that I am sharing with you below.  Some of you may be reluctant to set goals in the first place and feel it is a waste of time.  I say, “Your goals and dreams are how you move forward.” Without your own life plan of action, you will probably find yourself in a rut.   It is beneficial to reflect and think about what you want to accomplish over the next year to propel and motivate you on your life journey.  Here are five simple strategies I use to keep focused and on track in order to complete my yearly goals:

**Set Realistic Goals – Do you want to fly to the moon?  Unless you are an astronaut, you are setting yourself up for failure.  It is much better to set realistic goals and attain them before moving toward goal(s) that are more far reaching.  For instance, if you really do want to fly to the moon, how about entering and completing a program on space travel first.  If you set goals in smaller steps, it works well.  Besides…what’s your rush?

**Don’t set too many goals at once – How come some people make long lists of yearly goals?  It is much more advantageous to prioritize your goals according to what is most important to you.  Even if it is just one goal for the year, you will feel great if you accomplish it.  It’s hard to juggle too many goals at once.

**Set goals that concern you – Don’t rely on the behaviors or action of others to accomplish your goals.  You are in control only of your own behavior.  If you rely on someone else, you may not attain your goal(s).

**Make a plan to implement your goals – It is not enough just to set a goal.  You must think up and execute a plan of action.  A vision board is a great tool to help you implement your goals.  By itself, knowledge is useless.  Just knowing what to do guarantees nothing.  It takes application, i.e., work, self-discipline and commitment in order to maintain and achieve results.

**Don’t despair if you don’t accomplish your goal(s) by the end of the year.  There are options! -  If it gets to the end of the year and you have not completed your goals, re-evaluate and either carry the goal over to the next year to work on again, break it up into parts (part a & part b), or fine tune and redefine it.  Again, what’s the rush?  Remember it is the journey, not the destination that brings the greatest reward.

"If one asks for success and prepares for failure, he will get the situation he has prepared for." ~ Florence Scovel Shinn

 

Post blog note:  My sister says nobody makes New Year Resolutions anymore.  I explained that she must have goals in life.  She said, "of course I have goals" and rattled them off.  Ok...so she doesn't label them as "resolutions" but they are still "goals."........LOL