The New Year is the perfect time to start fresh. If there’s any aspect of your life that you’d like to improve, set clear and realistic goals for yourself that will help you get there.
Take It Slow
Work towards your goal one piece at a time. It’s important to take it slow and not take on too much at once. The main reason that some people fail when it comes to their New Year’s goals is that they fail to plan out a realistic path.
Create a Plan
It’s easy to say: “I want to lose 20 pounds” or “I want a new job.” Keep in mind that big goals like these will take some time and effort. Diets are hard to start because you may feel unmotivated or hungry. Finding a new job takes at least six months and can sometimes feel like having a second job.
Remember that the beginning is tough. Muster up the courage and enthusiasm to continue with your efforts. Remember that most people give up, but you’re not most people, are you?
You’re different because, unlike most people, you’re going to create a clear and realistic plan to take you right to success. If you’re going to lose 20 pounds, define how you’re going to lose those pounds. Are you starting an exercise routine? How many times a week are you going to work out? Are you going to join Weight Watchers or count calories? Be as detailed as possible. Map it out into monthly, weekly, daily steps. Put those steps on your calendar. Having things you want to accomplish on your calendar helps with staying accountable to yourself.
You know that you won’t lose the weight quickly; it’s a steady loss that brings success. Even if you’re short a couple of pounds on one of your short-term goals, you can revise your plan and kick up the pace, or just continue on your path because you’ll reach your 20 pound goal before the year is out. That’s what you’ll be able to accomplish with a solid plan in place.
Be Real
You have to stay realistic when it comes to your New Year’s goals. The holidays are a joyful time, and often times you’ll feel motivated to achieve something big. Know that you can achieve big things, but there are also only 24 hours in a day. Break the goal down into weekly steps that eliminate feeling overwhelmed. It provides you with action items that will help you lose the weight or find that new job.
Avoid making goals that would take more than a year to complete. If you want to make a long-term goal like this, break it up into parts and give yourself a realistic plan for your first year goal.
Be Accountable
Find a friend, colleague, family member that will help you stay accountable to the steps you have set out for yourself. Check-ins monthly, weekly, daily, make it work for you.
Visualize the Outcome
When you run into snags in the road, as you’re bound to in life from time to time, it will help to visualize yourself reaching your end goal. Visualizing it makes it feel real and motivates you to continue to work hard to make it happen.
The Right Attitude
If you’re practicing the right attitude, you can go far. It’s true that all you need to do is believe in yourself. You’ve probably realized that if you don’t believe that you can accomplish something, you simply won’t. How can you expect to achieve great things if you don’t believe in yourself?
An optimistic attitude is critical to your success. Think about how you felt when you first set your New Year’s goal. Chances are that you had an excellent attitude, so try to maintain that mindset throughout your journey to success with your goal.
Once you’ve determined a realistic goal and divided it up into short, achievable steps, you’re bound for success as long as you take action to complete each step. Go ahead and make that New Year’s resolution, knowing that this year is going to be your most successful yet!
If you would like help breaking down your goal and staying accountable, happy to help!
Bryan Nadeau, CEO and Founder of Vision to Reality Coaching, is an ICF Associate Certified Coach with extensive experience as an entrepreneur, cross-functional team leader, manager and individual contributor. Helping You Get Excited About Mondays Again!™
Helping leaders, managers, and up-and-coming talent develop and expand new perspectives, attitudes, skills and behaviors for career success and performance gains. Through a program that helps individuals and teams go from goal to result, positioning individuals and teams in the most impactful and effective manner to proactively achieve results.