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How I Achieved More Success When I Stopped Making A Goals List For The New Year

goals list
Photo by Danielle MacInnes on Unsplash

The week between Christmas and New Year is a breeding ground for my feeds to be full of people setting goals and making new resolutions. While it is important to set the course for the future, there is a lot of pressure to make a list by January 1.

So you write down goals and then the inevitable happens. Several weeks into the new year, lists are thrown by the wayside and all the gyms are empty again.  It’s not like people don’t want to excel at their goals, it’s that they are not a true priority. We put together lofty expectations for the new year because everyone else is jumping of that bridge.

Most people begin ruminating over things they “should” write down because it’s what the majority is doing. In reality, it doesn’t quite align with what we really want.

I say screw it.

I’m not saying that making goals is bad or you shouldn’t have dreams. In fact, you absolutely should have an idea of what you want your life to look like.

Instead, take some of the pressure off yourself and reflect back on your past twelve months. If something comes up that you want to achieve or work towards in the upcoming year, great. But release yourself of thinking this is something you HAVE to do during the last week of the year.

Setting Yourself Up For Success

What if we went against the grain and didn’t make a goals list this New Year? Isn’t that a relief to know that you can let go of the pressure to create something out of nothing?

Or what if you already have goals in place because you have an ongoing list all year long.  Huh, let’s think about that.

Each year on my birthday, I sit down to reflect over the past year. There is no pressure because millions of people all over the world aren’t doing the same thing. I can look back at what I’ve done and what I want to accomplish over the next 365 days in peace.

In fact, I set new goals all year round. I don’t want February to come and feel like a reject because I quit half the things I set out to do in January. When we make our list at the beginning of the year, we are setting ourselves up for failure. Then the negativity starts because we see ourselves not completing the list we made on a whim.

Can you see where all motivation can be lost?

Reflect Upon The Last Year

For this year’s end, I’m going to review goals that I set for myself throughout the year. I might add to them, but mostly it’s a time to REFLECT!  A time to see which goals are still important to me, which ones I need to revisit, and which ones I need to let go.

A great place to look for this is in my journal. Each night, I write down my daily gratitudes, what I accomplished for the day and see what goals I’m focusing on at the present moment. By doing this, I allow myself to look back at all the good things that have come my way.

When I read back on my life, I see how everything is written in present tense as if it has already happened. I am charting the map for my life in I AM statements. And instead of having deadlines for my goals, I use the word soon. For example: Soon, I am a full time professional writer making six figures or more a year.

This way my brain can go to work to get this goal done as soon as possible. If I put an end date on it, my mind will only be focused on that. When in reality, it could be possible for me to reach this goal well before my intended deadline. Who wouldn’t want to achieve their goals faster? So while it seems as if I’m not being specific, I am. I am releasing control of the when and letting the universe take this into it’s own hands.

Add Goals When It Feels Right For You

Today, I’m going to go against the grain to say, set goals when it’s right for you. There is not exact date they have to be done by and you can record them in your own way. In conjunction with my running list of goals, I have a page of things I want to accomplish before my next birthday and a notebook of 200+ things I want to do in my lifetime. I continuously add to this when new travel experiences pop up.  My current goals stay in check with the several types of journal I have around my house.

It’s not about one day a year. It’s about being consistent all year long and keeping the things you want in the forefront of your mind. Don’t feel as if you have to make a commitment now for the new year. Instead, get into the mindset of abundance and achievement throughout the whole year.

Choose to be reflective on everything you achieved this past year. It will set you up to be in a place of gratitude in order to help you figure out what your next move is going to be. This the moment when your true intentions can shine through showing you what is possible.

 

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