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The holidays are here and the year is almost over. New opportunity is ahead and 2019 will be as exciting as you allow it to be.
Most people think about goals when they approach the new year. Perhaps you’re thinking about goals and dreams as well. Did you accomplish what you wanted in 2018? Was it a year of regrets? Was it a year of change? Do you already know some of what 2019 will have in store, or is it a completely blank slate?
Sometimes people struggle with setting goals because they don’t know how to go about the process. If you have a big dream for the new year, but pursue it without a few principles and mechanics in place, your big dream usually just remains that: a dream.
Learning how to set and execute goals is just as much skill as any other discipline in life. It takes careful thinking, practice, experimentation, persistence. The more you work at goal setting and executing your goals, the better you get it doing it.
Here are five powerful ways to set new goals in 2019.
Study your past
One reason people struggle at times to execute their goals is because they set goals without understanding themselves, knowing their personality, or anticipating how they’ll react. You can set new goals, but you can’t as easily become a totally new person. We can all change some things about ourselves, but some of our personality and tendencies are simply who we are. For example, if you’re introverted by nature and your goal is to become a total extrovert in 2019, you’re in for some disappointment.
The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior. Knowing who you are and how you react to life will help you set concrete and realistic goals for 2019, and you won’t be fighting yourself in order to execute them. Be honest, be realistic, and be motivated!
Create accountability
Some of us are truly self disciplined people, and can self motivate and snap ourselves into anything. However, most of us don’t have the skill quite so naturally.
Another powerful way to reach new goals in 2019 is to get others involved. Talk to friends and family about what you’re wanting to accomplish, and ask them to help you stay on track. Tell them that you value them and want to make them a part of your success. If they’re a good friend or family member, they’ll be willing to help.
Keep records
You can’t improve what you don’t measure. One of the best ways to make sure you’re executing your goals is to keep track of your progress. Even if you’re not the most organized person, there are plenty of apps and even some tools probably already on your phone that can help you keep track of where you are on a particular goal. The discipline of writing things down and keeping records of what you’re doing will pay off when you can look at what over time has changed. You’ll get insight on what factors and variables may have caused progress or regress. You can use this information to your advantage. When you only keep everything in your head, it’s easy for things to get washed away.
Listen to people who’ve achieved your goal
It’s one thing to set a goal and think abstractly about what it would look like to accomplish it. It’s another thing entirely to watch and listen to and learn from a real life person or people who have already taken the journey you’re on and have achieved the goal you want. Become a student, and learn what steps they took. Learn what challenges they overcame. Learn the strategies they discovered. Who knows? You may be able to reach your goals even faster knowing the highs and lows they went through! Even better, if you can personally meet some of these people and be mentored by them, that a double blessing!
Put things on the calendar
If you really want to get serious about your goals in 2019, they have to become a part of your lifestyle. What better way to make something a part of your lifestyle than having it be part of your everyday schedule, like everything else you do? The truth is, when you schedule something, it becomes more real to you. When you take the time to plan out and chart out what you want, down to the hours in a day, when you’re going to get something done, you become accountable to it and it becomes real. A wise man once told me, “It’s a good thing when your calendar is your boss.” Don’t fall into the trap of not having time to finish your goals. If you can make progress on a goal in a certain day, block out time on the calendar and make it happen.
2019 is yours for the taking. If you want to get things done, get in the frame of mind to make it happen. Your goals will go only as far as you do.
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