“You must take personal responsibility. You cannot change the circumstances, the seasons, or the wind, but you can change yourself.” - Jim Rohn
Today is only the 11th of January, but how many of those resolutions did you already break. It’s frustrating I know – all the good intentions in the world – and your will power just lets you down. If you’ve already broken some of your New Years Resolutions, don’t worry, you can still get back on track. The very first thing you will need to do is to take responsibility, I’m talking – 100% responsibility for everything you do in your life. Only one person is responsible for the quality of life you live and that is YOU!
There are 10 key elements to achieving your goals, briefly, they are:
- Your goals must be your own (not what someone else wants of you)
- Your goals must be meaningful (are you prepared to give something up to achieve your goal)
- Your goals must be specific and measurable (saying you want to make x amount of dollars isn’t enough, you need to break that amount down into months, then weeks, then days and hours if that will help you visualize the way to achieve your goal.)
- Your goals must be flexible (If a once in a lifetime opportunity comes along, you may want to alter your course of action to include that opportunity. If you are too rigid, you may regret passing up that opportunity.)
- Your goals must be challenging (if they are not, you may end up settling into a life of boredom – exciting and challenging goals help you keep the edge you need to achieve them.)
- Your goals must be in line with your values (if your goals contradict your core values, you will not be able to achieve them)
- Your goals need to be well-balanced (Have you ever heard an elderly person lament the fact that they should have spent more time at work? No, quite the opposite, they usually wish they had spent more time with their family, traveling or just doing something they enjoyed.)
- Your goals must be realistic and attainable (This isn’t to say you shouldn’t set big goals, just be realistic about them. If you are 150 pounds overweight, it would not be realistic to think you could lose that weight in just two months. You are setting yourself up for failure if you do. A better approach would be to break your weight loss down into weeks – say 1-1/2 pounds per week then set your goal to lose 75 pound in one year. That may still be difficult, but way more attainable than 150 pounds in two months.
- Your goals must include contribution (this can be in time, talent or money, remember, what ye sow, ye shall reap!)
- Your goals need to be supported (choose a few key people to support and encourage you when the going gets tough and you feel like quitting.)
For those of you who are not used to setting goals, or set goals and never achieve them, I suggest you start with just one goal. Start with something small and achievable – there’s nothing like success to get you fired up and ready to achieve bigger and better things.
