A new year is a great opportunity to look ahead and plan what you want to achieve. Looking at the big picture and figuring out goals – things that are important, things you want to change, in any aspect of life.
Two key questions can help set your focus:
1) What is the biggest difference you can make in your key communities this year? Who can you impact the most from what you can give?
2) For what purpose will this be beneficial to you?
Your vision for what you want to achieve needs to balance both giving and receiving. What you can give to others and what you can get in return? It’s not being selfish or self-less – it’s about the balance of achieving both.
Setting goals can be the easy part. Achieving goals is typically about creating change. Doing things differently. Yet, we all know that deep down, change is, well, not as easy as we’d often like. It usually takes giving up something in the short term to get something else. Like giving up comfort food to lose weight, or giving up procrastinating to get stuff done.
Making change easy
Here are 4 key things that can help make the difference in achieving your goals.
1. Choose your attitude – make it positive.
Your attitude is your greatest asset. It’s the thing, more than anything that will get you to where you want to go. It’s more important than having knowledge or skill. It’s the thing that will keep you going when things get tough, or go wrong, or when you don’t know what to do next. Attitude is the thing keeps you moving forward when it would be easy to give up. Your attitude will always be a reflection of the results you achieve. Be controlled by your attitude, not by the environment around you. When your attitude comes first, you will do what needs to be done, and then feel the positive emotion that comes from that. Attitude is a game changer. Your attitude sets you up for success.
2. Meet the commitments you make to yourself
Be your word – every time. Keep the promises you make to you. When you don’t, you simply validate why you can’t rely on you. And if you can’t rely on you, then how can others rely on you? Every time you make a decision to start something and you don’t finish it, it diminishes how you see yourself and the value you place on who you are for you. Keeping promises take discipline and effort. It’s worth establishing a pattern of self-worth rather than having low self-esteem. If finishing to completion is new to you then start from there. The time is now to make a committed decision to follow through. You can push through and you can find a way. There’s nothing that you need other than the commitment you can make.
3. Keep track of your progress
Make sure you have a way of measuring your progress. Know how you are tracking so you can keep on track, or get back on track. Are you where you want to be right now? Are you doing what it takes to get there or are you busy doing stuff that’s not contributing? Tracking your progress is a great way of keeping motivated and creating the pace you need to win. Keeping track and keeping score is key and also allows you to celebrate reaching milestones along the way.
4. Do it again and again. And repeat.
Create an environment that is habit forming. All preferred working states have one thing in common – they compel you to get started and keep moving. Success happens step by step. Create the momentum that creates the change you want. It’s the consistency that you bring, day after day, week after week, month after month, that will create your success. Success isn’t a one off typically. It’s something that is created through repetition. Creating change takes the discipline to do what’s required to achieve it. Getting better at something takes practice. Remember to get better at something that matters. Practice is repetition. Repetition creates success.
Conclusion:
If you start with a great mindset, everything flows from there. Take responsibility for what happens and every result you achieve. Know what you need to do to win. Whether it’s a little less and a little more, or a lot less and a lot more of something, know that you can do it. Wanting something is doing what it takes to have it, or else it’s just an idea. Only you can create the meaningful success you want.
