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Nothing Worth Having Comes Easily
Considering everything that happened in 2020 some of us may not be very enthusiastic about setting goals for 2021. However, we have only one life (let’s just assume it) and a certain amount of time to make progress on things that truly matters for us. This is why we should not be disheartened about planning and preparing for potentially the best year of our lives. Besides, with all the craziness, uncertainty and unpredictability in the world right now, set a theme for the new year seems to be a great idea.
2020 has turned our lives by 180 degrees forcing us to change our attitude, adjust our mindset, pivot our goals, reanalyze our choices, reprioritize our lives, rethink our vision and values.
The life on autopilot with everything planned out to the smallest detail has been reset. Suddenly, it came out that you cannot plan everything to the nth degree expecting that everything will go smoothly.
2020 could not make it more evident that unexpected things do happen and you need to keep that in mind. Once again, life has shown us that a flexible mindset, resourcefulness, self-sufficiency, creativity, and imagination are the most important attributes you can cultivate. Because the truth is, we never know what is going to happen next. Sometimes we don’t know what’s best for us until it surprises us. Some things are just not meant to be.
Life is a self-discovery journey full of obstacles that you need to overcome in order to become the best version of yourself. Nothing worth having comes easy.
2020 has made us realize that we are capable of much more than we ever thought. So don’t give up on your dreams. Just because you could not make them true in 2020 it does not mean that it’s impossible. But it is also true that no real accomplishment will be possible without hard work, a positive mindset, and constant belief that you will achieve it.
So take a deep breath, roll up your sleeves and prepare yourself for the first step in regaining control over your life. Because today we’re setting goals for 2021!
'Time is a currency you can only spend once, so be careful how you spend it.'
Start With A Vision
Start with a big picture of what do you want to achieve, who do you you want to become and how do you want to feel a year from now. Create an inspiring and captivating image of your future self that will give you a strong reason to get out of bed early in the morning even on those days when you wake up unmotivated and uninspired.
I know that after everything that happened in 2020 you may not feel like creating an inspiring vision for your life. I get it. But the truth is, we’ve got only one life that moves pretty fast and if you won’t even try to make your dreams come true you will miss the only and unique opportunity to create the life you want to live.
“We are the creators of our lives and not the managers of our circumstances”. So don’t give up on your dreams. You have the power to consciously design your life. You are the one who can create your one reality, your opportunities and your options in life. All you need to do is to use the power of your thoughts, words and actions to create your ideal scenario and then turn it into your highly personalized reality.
How To Create A Vision
- Describe in detail your current version of yourself
- Focus on every area of your life (health, relationships, career, personal finance, creativity,
personal growth, enjoyment, home, spirituality) and ask yourself what do you want to fix, improve or change. - Envision your ideal (but realistic) scenario in every area of your life.
- Figure out what do you want to achieve by the end of the next year
- Ask yourself how do you want to feel and what mental state you want to achieve in 2021
- Create a bucket list of things you want to experience in 2021
- Close your eyes and visualize your future version of yourself.
- Then open your eyes and take notes. Write down your thoughts and ideas
Create A Vision Board That Works
Vision board or dream board as some people call it is a piece of art that you create to manifest your dream future. It’s a powerful tool that you can use to visualize your dream future, create an emotional connection between your current version of yourself and your ideal self, narrow down your desires and maintain your focus on specific goals. In other words, a vision board is a simple method to turn your mental image into creative visualization.
You can easily create your vision board using Pinterest, Canva, a blank page and a pen or any other “tool” to visualize your dreams.
- Define your purpose
- Discern your intentions
- Dream big but keep it realistic
- Be selective on what you want to put on your vision board (it should create focus, not chaos and disorientation)
- Find capturing images and inspirational quotes that you will add to your vision board to make your motivation flow effortlessly every single time you look at your vision board (do your research using the internet, find images and words that perfectly illustrate your short-term future, print them out and stick them onto your vision board)
- Start designing your highly personalized vision board that will create excitement and enthusiasm every single time you will see it
- Place your vision board somewhere that you can see it (my vision board is above your desk)
Set SMART Goals
Once you have a clear mental picture of who do you want to become by the end of the next year, it’s time to set goals that will help you to turn your vision into reality. But don’t just focus on one area of your life like career or physical health. Think holistically. Figure out what do you want to achieve in each area of your life. Ask yourself what are your dreams and set SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and time-bound) goals to turn these dreams into realities. Identify the milestones that will mark your journey towards success.
This process of setting clear goals will not only help you to refocus on what’s truly important but it will also help you to regain full control over your life. Not to mention that knowing what you want to achieve in life will drastically increase your willpower and determination so much needed by everyone who wants to achieve success in life.
9 Spheres Of Life
- Health (physical and mental)
- Relationships
- Career (or School)
- Personal Finance
- Creativity
- Personal Growth
- Enjoyment
- Home
- Spirituality
Grab Your FREE Goals & Intentions Worksheets
Set Intention Behind Each Goal
Setting intentions on the back of your goals is equally important as your goals. Because to get started and stay motivated to work hard to achieve the set goals you need to know why you’re doing this. Otherwise, what’s the point of even trying. Not to mention that without a strong reason „why” it will be hard to stick to your goals when challenges arise. And we all know that no matter how well prepared and organized for something you are, problems and set-back will occur.
Defining your „why” and setting intentions behind each of your goals will literally turn on the part of your brain that control motivation. And motivation is nothing else than your motive for action. Once you define it, you can be sure that no obstacle will stand in your way.
How To Set Intentions Behind Goals
- Identifying the exact reason why you want to achieve a specific goal (a particular result of your daily actions)
- Start with the feeling or state you want to achieve once a specific goal is accomplished
- Think about how achieving a specific goal will change your life (your current version of yourself)
- Write your thoughts down
- Read what you wrote out loud
Simplify & Prioritize Your Goals
Our resources are limited. Time, energy, money, mental capacity, attention, physical space, willpower, or even talents. They are all limited. This means that if say “YES” to one thing you automatically say “NO” to another thing. You cannot focus on everything at the same time. You need to figure out what to focus on. This rule applies to pretty much everything.
Too many goals can create confusion, a sense of feeling overwhelmed, too much complexity, and additional stress as if living in times like these weren’t already extremely stressful. So if you want to avoid feeling confused, stressed, and overly anxious about the goal-setting process you need to prioritize what are the most important goals from your “2021 goal list”.
Look at your list of goals and choose those that you really want to work on in 2021. If you have trouble choosing and prioritizing which goals you want to work on first, then the easiest way to figure that out is to ask yourself what is the impact of achieving each of your goals. In other words, how accomplishing each of the goals from your list will change your life. How the result of a certain achievement will impact your life.
Create A Plan Of Action For Your Goals
Even the most brilliant idea is worthless unless you act on it. No matter how much you want it, there is no way your thoughts, ideas, or goals will magically appear without you moving in the right direction. Only doing what you believe in and pursuing your dreams will result in success.
But here’s a thing. To start working on your goals you need to create a plan of action. Because before you switch to taking action you need to know exactly what, when and how to do to get closer to achieving your goals. Otherwise, you will end up confused and overwhelmed by the amount of tasks to do.
So next step in the process of achieving your goals is to create a plan of action for each of your most important goals. From my experience, I can tell you that one of the best ways to approach a big goal yearly goals is to break them into small manageable goals with nine-monthly, six-monthly, quarterly, monthly and weekly deadlines. And to help you with that I created free worksheets of action planning that you can grab below.
Grab Your FREE Worksheets
Organize Your Life Around Your Goals
Many times we see only the result of someone’s work. What we don’t see is the process of achieving a goal, which can give the impression that big achievements happen overnight. Which is simply untrue.
Success is never a coincidence but the result of hard work, continuous effort, enormous sacrifice, persistence and unwavering self-belief in one’s ability to achieve their goals. In other words, if you want to be successful you need to organize your daily life around your goals. And what better way to do that than by creating a daily routine, powerful habits and rituals?
Daily routine, rituals and sequence of habits that reinforce each other will not only keep you on track with your goals but also will create momentum in your day. Not to mention that a well-planned and organized day will save you time, energy, stress and in most cases also money.
Routine creates consistency and consistency is the key to success in turning your dream into reality. Without conscious and constant effort nothing great will be achieved. Every single day you should do something, small or big that will get you one step closer to your goal.
How to start before you are ready here
Posts On Powerful Routines
- The 5-Step Weekly Routine For Living A Successful And Happy Life.
- 7-Step Work From Home Routine To Boost Your Productivity Levels.
- Morning Routine To Reduce Stress And Anxiety: Quarantine Edition.
- Morning Routine To Reduce Stress And Anxiety – Start Your Day With A Positive Mindset!
- The Ultimate Night Routine For Better Sleep And More Productive Mornings + free printables and checklists for organizing your evenings.
- How To Create A Simple Self-Care Routine That Will Make You Thrive + Free Printables & Checklists!
"Success is the progressive realization of a worthy ideal."
Create Motivation
Most people think that they need to find motivation and gain inspiration before they even start working on their goals. That’s a huge mistake. Because motivation is not something you find or something that magically happens to you while you just sit and do nothing.
Motivation is something you create through your actions. Furthermore, the more you do the more self-motivated you become. It happens because the moment you notice your accomplishments your appetite for success grow and you become unstoppable but only if you keep working towards your goals. Because you need to know that motivation is not constant.
Motivation is a feeling and like any other feeling, it is a natural response to a situation. In other words, it has to be triggered by a specific action or event. So if you want to become insanely self-motivated and highly productive you need to take intentional action. You need to put yourself in motion and start creating real results.
There is no magical way your dream will come true only because you think intensively about it. You need to act before you get a dopamine spike that is one of the most powerful motivational triggers. You need to start before you’re ready and announce your project before it’s done!
Keep Yourself Accountable
Without accountability for actions, there can be no progress nor achievement. Because if there is nothing or nobody that hold you accountable what’s the point of even get out of bed? If you carry no responsibility you can just observe how your life is just passing by. But if you are ambitious, you want to take full responsibility for your life because you know that it’s your chance to make the most of this incredible journey.
Responsibility is power. Responsibility is freedom. Responsibility is the key to success. So if you want to enhance your chances for success and stick to your most difficult goals you need to take responsibility for your actions. And what better way to do that than by creating a reward and consequences system?
This handy discipline tool can help you guide yourself towards making better choices. Because let’s face it, being rewarded for following the rules and mastering positive habits encourage you to keep doing a good job while experiencing consequences for difficult behaviour prevent a repeat of the same mistake.
Grab Your Free Printable Workbook
Best Posts About Achieving Goals:
- Maximize Your Productivity: 6-Step Method To Get More Things Done In Less Time. HERE
- Perfect Morning Routine to Reduce Stress & Anxiety HERE
- The Ultimate Guide For Setting & Reaching Your Goals HERE
- 6 Self-Improvement Habits To Adopt in 2020 HERE
- Get into the Habit of Being Seriously Organized in 2020. HERE
- 8 Simple Steps to Set Yourself Up for a Successful 2020 HERE
- Powerful and smart ways to manage your time efficiently and effectively HERE
- 5 steps to success in achieving your goals HERE
- The ultimate way to overcome procrastination and become a highly productive person HERE
- The science of motivation HERE
- 10 powerful habits to boost your confidence HERE
Stay positive, be mindful and set goals for 2021!
xo Kate
