Well, it’s that time of year again. The old is going out, and the new is coming in. January feels like a fresh start, whether or not the month is actually different from any other time. I’m not necessarily a New Years resolution kind of person, but I do believe in setting goals for myself, and this is the perfect time to think about what I want to do in 2016.
The problem is that I often get stumped. I stare at a blank Word document and just try to make things up, which often results in either an unrealistic goal or one I really don’t want to achieve. By the time it’s March I’ve forgotten about the goals I set my mind to, because they weren’t that near and dear to me in the first place.
I wanted this year to be different. I’m tired of moving throughout my business and life with either no purpose or an ever-changing one. But to be honest, when I opened up a Word document a few minutes ago, I didn’t know how to begin. Yet only a few minutes later, I had a complete list of goals that are achievable, actionable, and aspirational for next year. So here’s what I did.
The first round of goals was kind of a brain dump. I knew I wanted to split up personal and professional goals, but beyond that I just started writing. These were things that had come to mind before, but some were brand new. A lot of my personal goals are closer to disciplines (memorizing a Bible verse every two weeks), but that fits perfectly in line with what I want my year to look like.
After the initial brain dump, I went back through each goal and wrote this down…
What:
Why:
How:
When I took the time to break this down, it eliminated all the fluff. One sales goal for photography went to the wayside when I realized I could not think of a good ‘why.’ As I narrowed down my list, the things I wanted to do remained, and my heart was lit on fire. These are good goals. These are things I am excited about.
Just as important as the why is the how. I mentioned my Bible memorization goal earlier. That’s a nice goal, but what are the practical steps I’m going to take to make that happen? For me, I’m going to write the verse on a card and fix it to the sunshade in my car. It’ll be a constant reminder to look at it and read it (though of course I’ll wait until I’m not driving!). I drive all the time, so I know that it will be unavoidable.
Now that I have my list, I’m excited to get started on the steps to make them happen in the New Year. I hope you can use this as a guideline to get your list started, and get going on reaching your goals in 2016 and beyond!
