6 Ways to Kick Your New Year Goals into Formation

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The thought of the word resolution just makes me cringe.

I feel like resolutions never seem to stick, so I’ve come up with a more promising idea to be more consistent – GOALS!

Since the New Year is upon us, now is the time to take a look at our pending goals (not resolutions) for the year ahead.

Although goals are challenging, there are ways to make them a little easier for you to accomplish. Achieving goals takes so much time, effort, energy and sweat equity.

Personally speaking, there has been countless amount of times where I jotted my goals down for the year and stopped midway through the year.

How many of you experience the same struggle?

Utilize these tips to help you get through this year and beyond!

1. Re-Evaluate Your Goals Every 3 Months

Truthfully speaking, I cannot tell you how many times we set out to achieve our goals and midway through the year, or even before, we get discouraged and distracted and just stop. On my social media timelines, I see popular hashtag trends like #FitnessGoals, #RelationshipGoals, #CareerGoals, but are we actually taking the time to take the steps to pursue them? Goals should be designed for you, by you. 

We want to #LevelUp like Ciara, but what are we putting into motion to acheive this status?

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One of the sites that I frequent is ‘Businessese,’ which is a great informational site spearheaded by an attorney hat helps bloggers (like me) with tips to stay on the up and up.

They posed a question in their Facebook group about goal-setting for the new year. They asked for the readers’ input, I gave my tip and they featured my response in their final blog post of 2016.  My suggested tip still stands. Check out the post and share your thoughts in the comments below.

My views on dividing your goals into 3-month chunks, really resonate with a lot of people. It really takes away the pressure, because you’re not going a full year without knowing the progression of your goals.

Once you take a breath, take a seat, and realize how well (or how poor) you are doing, you can make adjustments to keep pulling forward, or move that goal to the back seat until you are able to do the work necessary to get there.

For example, increasing the readership of Blog Xpressions is one of my goals. My blog’s exposure will not reach it’s highest potential if I don’t do the work. I will need to invest more time and resources to fulfill that goal. 

When it’s time to get an update on your goals, ask yourself the 5W’s: Who, What, When, Where, Why (and let’s throw “how” in there, too!) Here’s an example:

“How far have I come since I started this fitness journey?”

If one of your goals is to lose weight, then create a start date. Take before and after images and then when it’s time to re-evaluate, you can do a comparison to see where you stand.

Did you lose? Gain? Do you need to make any adjustments to your weight loss plan?

2. Create a Vision Board

A vision board is exactly what it sounds like – your vision on a board. Vision boards have been used for many years as a source to visibly track your goals.

Some things never get old and can be just as effective. Here are some quick steps on how to create your own vision board:

• Get a poster-type board or a display board (can be purchased at any office supply stores or Dollar Tree)
• Gather/print cut-out materials pertaining to your goals from magazines, newspapers, etc. and apply them to the board with tape or glue. Think of it like a science project (I hated doing these in school!)
• Make it a “Vision Board” party and invite friends over to make it a fun experience (blog post on this coming soon!)

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Be as simple or as creative as you like – it’s your board! Post the board somewhere in a space where you can always see it to serve as a reminder to keep up with your goals.

Head to my Pinterest board for some vision board pinspiration! So many great ideas!

3. Don’t Over-Commit Yourself

I get it – there are so many things you want to do, places you want to see that it becomes overwhelming to accomplish them all in one year. Write out goals that are feasible. Yes, goals are challenging, but don’t make it extra challenging by committing to doing something that you know may not happen.

For example, one of my goals was to do some extensive traveling, but it was not a goal that I set for that current year. I didn’t start traveling until two years after when I was financially able. 

I had too much on my plate already with a full-time job, being a mother, a wife and maintaining a household. When my son is a little older, will I  able to travel more? Yes! And, you need money to travel, and during that time, I had other priorities ahead of traveling. Once I get to a point where I could create a traveling budget, then I committed to being a jetsetter!

4. Record Your Goals in a Planner/Journal/Calendar

I admit – I am addicted to pretty paper and a juicy-writing instrument. My addiction lead me to write and write and write…hence one of the reasons this blog was born.

I strongly recommend you get yourself a journal or a planner. No, it does not have to be all fancy, just something simple and well laid out so you can document your goals, your important dates, and reminders that align with your goals.

For example, if you accomplished losing 10lbs. as part of your weight loss goal, write it in your journal!  Sometimes our minds are on vacation and we tend to forget what we accomplished and how much. If you write it down, you can always reference back to it. Celebrate all your wins!

Here are some great journals that so many people have invested in (including myself): 

• Eric Condren: I heard so many people talk about how awesome these line of journals are. And if you are a girly-girl like me who is the complete obsessive compulsive organization freak, this is the journal for you.
• The Evernote Moleskin Notebook with Smart Stickers: I’ve heard a lot about this baby, too! It’s a plain Jane journal, but the perk is your handwritten notes can be converted into digital notes. So you’ll have your notes written and recorded using Evernote.



5. What is Your “Word of the Year?”

Your Word of the Year is to be considered as your motivating word. It’s the word that keeps you on your toes to help you stay on track of accomplishing your goals. I know a lot of people who use this method.

• Have your word written out somewhere. Post it on a bulletin board (e.g. your vision board) or print it out and frame it, perhaps? Remember, your word should be a charge word that motivates YOU to keep on with the good fight.
  
• Plan out your business and/or personal goals with that word in mind.
• As mentioned in tip #4, get a calendar/planner and write your word in the corner of each month to serve as a reminder when you are planning out the vision for your goals. 
• As mentioned in tip #1, revisit your goals and your word every quarter (3 months). Determine where you stand and what you need to do to keep it movin’! 

I know you’re wondering what’s my word of the year, right? It’s E X E C U T I O N.


Reading The Hollywood Commandments by spiritual success coach, DeVon Franklin, led me to this word. Because at the end of the day, all we want for ourselves is to live in our divine purpose, but we must submit and commit to the process. And this book really gave me the courage, the boost to heading towards that journey. I wrote a full blog post about this book, please invest in your purpose and get this book. You will not be disappointed.

Let’s strike a conversation. What’s your word for the year? Need help coming up with one? Share your comments below. 

6. Enlist the Help of Family & Friends

Why not make it a team effort and invite family or friends? Share goals and hold each other accountable. Efforts like this will motivate you to keep pushing. For example, when I set goals, my mother is the one who I share them with first…and you better believe she will hold me to them.

When the idea of becoming a blogger came to my mind, my mother would ask me about it every single day. She wanted to make sure I was held accountable for the goal that I set out to achieve.

Here’s another example – my co-worker and I share goals with each other and every now and then, we’ll check in to see how the progress is moving along. 

Goal Diggers, if you are interested in starting a brand or looking to increase your online presence, take a look at my tools and resources page. I provide a few of my favorites programs and/or services that will help kick-start your business goals into high gear. 

Stay inspired, folks! Listen to this podcast that gives us nuggets on how to stay committed to our goals, not just interested. It’s easy to be interested. We can say every year how we want to start a new business or lose weight or maybe save more money. Unless you actually commit and submit to that process, then you were just interested, which does not produce results. 

Are you #interested in your goals or #committed to them? Get results and STOP the excuses! This #blog post is filled with #nuggets to keep you on track to conquer those #NewYear goals. Let's GO!Click To Tweet

Here’s how I roll into a new year, what about you?

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