How to Set Your New Year’s Goals the Right Way
It’s that time of year again!
A time for review, reflection, renewal.
A time to show gratitude for the things we’ve learned, the experiences that shaped us, and the mistakes that paved our path.
I love this time of year because it's easy to feel a sense of wonder and possibility. Holiday spirit is abundant, people are giving and generous, and those feelings are contagious.
It's also a perfect time of year to reflect on your life. Did you accomplish what you set out to this year? What lessons and gifts did life bring your way? What are you most proud of?
Spending time reflecting on the previous year also sets you up to plan your year ahead. By appreciating the memories, lessons, events, and experiences of the past year, you begin to understand what you want more of in the new year, and what you'd rather leave behind.
This year, I’m adding a twist that will help you build momentum on your most important goals and help you make progress toward achieving them. First, you’ll have access to a free Year in Review Workbook to help you look back on the previous year and look ahead to your next year.
Then, once you set your goals for the new year, I’ll help you create a vision board to make those goals become your reality.
Ready for your best year yet?
Here’s how to set your New Year’s Goals the right way:
1. List your biggest accomplishments
Think about the things you’re most proud of. What did you achieve? When were you most successful?
There are two ways to do this. In one version, you can go through the decades of your life (between ages 0-10, 11-20, etc.), and write down all of your accomplishments from each time period, big or small. This way, you have a clear picture of patterns or themes in your accomplishments, and you can see how achievements built on each other to get you to where you are today.
The second version is to make a list of accomplishments from the previous year. We tend to think that accomplishment has to be something big and something amazing that we did, but an accomplishment can be something small. It could be learning something new or stepping outside your comfort zone, or launching your website. No judgement, it’s whatever YOU think an accomplishment is, no matter how small. When you start to write these things down, you can categorize and notice the things that you’re doing well over time, giving yourself evidence of your success.
2. Identify any lessons learned
Just like listing our accomplishments can teach us a lot about ourselves, identifying our mistakes helps to pave the way for our success. Mistakes like sending an email to the wrong person, making an error in a blog, forgetting to include someone in a meeting, saying the wrong thing out of hurt or anger, while painful, help us grow and develop as leaders.
Think about the mistakes that helped you grow. Make a list of mistakes and missteps you encountered this year. What lessons did you learn from those experiences? How did making those mistakes help you learn more about yourself?
Learning doesn’t have to start from mistakes or stop in the classroom. Even if you don’t have access to traditional learning environments, you can take learning into your own hands.
Think about the small ways you’ve grown and developed each day, whether that’s learning from mistakes and failures, cultivating a gratitude practice, reading personal development books, or teaching yourself a new skill. How did these learning opportunities shape your life?
3. Consider what you want to leave behind
There are some things in your life that no longer serve you. In a lighthearted sense, you can think of these things like old pairs of jeans that are out of style or don’t fit you. For some reason, we keep these mementos around because we’re afraid that getting rid of them is like getting rid of a piece of ourselves. Or that one day, we’ll need them again.
Our thoughts can be like this, too. Over the years, we’ve built up different thought patterns that our brain uses to keep us safe and in our comfort zones.
Our brains will tell us things like, “you can’t do that,” or “that’s too hard,” or “what if you fail?”
And we keep these thoughts around because they’re safe. We’re safe. We’re safe if we don’t try something new because we avoid the risk of failure or humiliation. We’re safe if we stay in a soul-sucking job because we avoid the risk of disappointment of not getting our dream job or failing in our own business.
Thoughts like these only keep you safe to a point.
You won’t grow inside your comfort zone. Life is about taking (smart) risks, trying new things, learning from mistakes and failure, and going after our goals and dreams.
What thoughts are keeping you in your comfort zone? What habits would you like to break? Think about the things that you’d need to leave behind to have a successful new year.
Then tell those thoughts, “thank you, but you can’t come with me anymore.”
4. Get clear on your values and purpose
When you’re connected to something meaningful, something bigger than yourself, you can use that connection to set your next year up for success.
Identifying your core values and finding your life purpose are two ways you can get clear on what really matters to you. And when you’re clear on your purpose and how you’re meant to serve the world, you can align your career or job to your strengths, skills, and expertise.
When you’re in a role where you use your strengths and expertise on a daily basis, you start to build confidence in yourself and clarity around what’s most important to you. If you need somewhere to start, click here to join the 30-Day Life Purpose Challenge.
5. Set an intention
An intention is a guiding principle for how you want to be, live, and show up in the world. It’s not the same as a goal, which typically has an endpoint or an expectation of success.
An intention is a path you aim to align to. It guides our thoughts, actions, and attitudes.
If you consider that your life purpose is who you are at your core, then an intention can help you discover who you’re meant to be, and how you’re meant to show up in the world.
Intentions are heart-centered, emotionally-charged beliefs that guide our actions. Setting intentions helps to bring our beliefs, emotions, and actions into alignment.
Setting an intention is the first step in embodying who you want to be. As Dr. Wayne Dyer says, “You don’t attract what you want. You attract what you are.”
One way I love to do this is to determine my Word of the Year.
Your Word of the Year helps to inform your goals, set healthy boundaries, and center your mind around what matters most.
Some of my Words of the Year have been: Abundance, Peace, Freedom, Growth, Clarity, and Purpose.
Start by brainstorming positive, uplifting, encouraging words that motivate you, center you, or give you a sense of determination or pride.
Narrow your list of words down until you can identify a single word that represents how you want to be, feel or act for the rest of the year.
Use a vision board to build momentum on your goal
Once you identified your Word of the Year, use that to create one or two important goals for the new year, then create a vision board to help you focus on these goals every day.
Vision boards are the secret to success for many experts, including Tony Robbins and Jack Canfield:
"Your brain will work tirelessly to achieve the statements you give your subconscious mind. And when those statements are the affirmations and images of your goals, you are destined to achieve them!" – Jack Canfield
So, what is a vision board, exactly?
A vision board is a visualization tool that refers to a board of any sort used to build a collage of words and pictures that represent your goals and dreams. These simple boards are one of the most valuable visualization tools available for personal growth and success. The inspirational collages serve as your image of the future; a tangible example, idea or representation of where you want to go.
Vision boards represent our dreams, goals, and our vision for an ideal life. By representing your goals with pictures and images, you can actually strengthen and stimulate your emotions because your minds respond strongly to visual stimulation.
Our brains are very powerful creators. When you give your brain a problem, it will work tirelessly to solve it, especially if there's an emotional component. When you look at your vision board and imagine your life in the future, you'll likely feel those warm, fuzzy emotions like hope, happiness, contentment, gratitude, love. Your brain wants you to feel that way! It will continually find ways to get back to those feelings. A vision board provides the map your brain needs to figure out this problem.
And because your brain is so powerful, it creates a mental image of the photos and words on your vision board. This mental image creates a memory in your mind and reminds your brain that this is your goal. This is where you need to be. All you have to do is create that picture. Your brain will do the rest!
Set your SMART Goals for the New Year
Before you decide what to place on your vision board, you need to set some goals. More specifically, you need to set SMART Goals.
We all know that setting goals is the secret to success. And success will be ignited sooner if we follow these SMART principles:
Specific: The more detailed, the better! Make sure goals are clear and well-defined. Saying, "I want to make a profit,” is not enough. "I want to make $100,000,” is better, and "I want to make $100,000 so I can hire a virtual assistant,” is powerful.
Measurable: Be sure to include precise amounts and avoid vague words like "better," "more," etc. For example, "being a better businesswoman," is unclear. What does "better" mean? Instead, think about what that means for you and your future. Is it to increase sales by 25%? Increase revenue by 50%? Attract 5 new clients? Whatever it means to you, be specific and quantify it.
Attainable: Setting a pie-in-the-sky goal will only serve to frustrate and disappoint you. Think about how realistic your goal is in the time frame you have available. It's also important to consider the resources available to you. Think about the time you have each day to dedicate to your goals. Having one hour per day might be great for an exercise goal, but not if you want to be an elite athlete.
Relevant: Make sure your goals are relevant to your business, life, career, and the direction you want to go. Is this goal worthwhile? Does it align with your strengths, values, talents and experience? Will this goal move you forward? Consider all of these questions when determining your goal.
Time-Bound: Every goal needs a deadline. If you don't give yourself a deadline, you might fall into the trap of ignoring your goals or procrastinating or falling victim to "shiny object syndrome" (guilty!). Without a deadline, you're more likely to start working on other tasks that aren't as important as your goal or replacing your goal with something that's not as relevant to your future. Try setting goals for 1 month, 1 year, 3 years, or 5 years.
Using this format for setting goals will help you grow and expand, pushing yourself to transform in ways that you never imagined. It helps you to solidify what you want and be bold about it. If your dreams don’t scare you, they’re not big enough!
Create your vision board
Now that you have your goals in mind, it's time to create your vision board!
Follow the instructions below to create a vision board to support your SMART Goals. You'll also need: a sheet of card stock (I recommend 12”x12” scrapbook paper), magazines, scissors, glue sticks, and any other photos or stickers you'd like to add to your vision board.
I like to treat myself to a trip to the bookstore to look for magazines that are specific to my goals. Sometimes, I go in with an idea of what magazines I’m looking for, and other times, covers pop out at me that I hadn’t considered.
1. Start with an intention
Start with a brief meditation or visualization exercise. Close your eyes. Imagine your life one year from now. Where are you? Who are you with? What feelings are you experiencing? What goals have you achieved? What are you celebrating? What images or phrases come to mind? Now, set an intention for your vision board.
2. Look for visuals
Once you have that picture in your mind, flip through magazines, look through photos of yourself, or search online for images that represent your future. Cut them out and start arranging them on your vision board. Secure with glue when you've placed the photos where you want them.
3. Choose your words
Next, look for words or phrases that represent your future. They can be positive affirmations, power statements, inspirational quotes, or other words that help you feel the way you want to feel in your future. Cut these out and add them to your vision board. Secure with glue when you've placed the words.
4. Activate your vision board
To make your vision a reality, first, place your vision board in a prominent place; somewhere you'll see it every day, such as on your desk or next to your bed. I like to place my completed vision board in a scrapbook-size sheet protector with the three holes facing toward the top, so I can hang my board above my desk.
Each day, look at your vision board and read the words out loud. Keep your list of goals with your vision board so you can review them daily. Practice visualization with your vision board: close your eyes and picture yourself living that future. Imagine what it will feel like to accomplish your goals.
As you start to notice changes in your life, acknowledge them. Continue to show gratitude for what you already have and for any small wins along the way. This helps you cultivate an abundance mindset that allows you to call in what you want more of.
The Takeaway
You can set goals you’ll actually stick to when they’re aligned to what you really want in life. By taking the time to reflect on what you’re ready to leave behind or what you want more of, you’ll get clear on what’s most important for your year ahead. And, a vision board can help you gain momentum on your goals by helping you keep them top of mind every day.
Take action now: Download the free Year in Review Workbook and get started on your year-end reflection. Take stock of what you learned, how you grew, what you’re ready to let go, and who you want to be in the new year. Once you’ve outlined your goals, choose one (or both) to create your vision board. Place your vision board somewhere you’ll see it every day to stay focused on your most important goals.
