Will you let 2014 happen to you? Or will you make the most of your goals and take action to reach your dreams this year?
This is your life, and only you can make it a success. There are lots of people who will cheer you on, guide you, support you – but in the end, the path you take is your choice. How you walk along that path and where you take that path is completely a result of your decisions and more importantly your actions.
Don’t lose your focus. Follow my 8 tips on making your goals a reality and live the life you were meant to.
Continuing from my earlier post Make your Resolutions a Reality this Year. Part1 here are the last 4 tips to make your goals a reality.
1. Think like a project manager. If you haven’t been successful in achieving your New Year’s resolutions, it maybe that you didn’t treat them like a task. Project manager spends their days taking difficult, complicated goals and breaking them into their smallest element. This allows them to more easily track and carry out the goal. Break your large goal down into smaller, easy to manage action steps that are clear, achievable and have definite deadlines. For example – To lose 20 pounds by June 1st I need to lose 4 pounds a month. In order to do that I need to adjust my eating habits by reducing all sugar by cutting out my orange juice in month one, all white rice in month 2, all white bread in month 3, and increasing my workouts from once a week to twice a week starting in month one. I have created very clear action steps that I need to take to meet my monthly goal and ultimately my 5 month goal.
2. Don’t procrastinate. Having broken your goals into the smallest element, it’s much easier to take each step – one at a time. You have less to think over or debate on – the path becomes clear because the goal is so small and doable. Remember the physics law, “a body in motion stays in motion and a body at rest stays at rest”. Once you start moving you realize that there was nothing to worry about, it wasn’t so hard after all.
3. Reward yourself. I know the first step is the hardest – some days it seems easier to clean the toilet than take a step or continue on to the next step towards your goal. As you achieve each small goal, give yourself some reward. When I ran my first 5 km without stopping I bought myself a pair of sports sunglasses. It brought a smile to my face every time I put those sunglasses because they represented an important success. You can achieve many more results with positive reinforcement than berating yourself for missing a goal or action step.
4. Only you can make this happen. Some of us believe that other people are “lucky”. It seems as if everything just works for them and things fall neatly into their lap. Unfortunately there is no such thing as “luck”. Instead there is loads of hard work that opens one up to possibilities, opportunities, relationships and more. As you start to move your goals forward each day, new opportunities will arrive, that you never thought would occur – all because you started taking action towards your goal. The key ingredient is simply taking action.
Believe and achieve your goals. Take action on each goal each day. You will achieve them and all your dreams. Good luck in your New Year’s resolutions. I would love to hear how you are progressing in your goals – feel free to leave a comment below.
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