Create your HAPPY New Year!
Have you ever collected New Year’s resolutions and in the end didn’t do any of it? Welcome to the club! We all have many wishes and goals for our lives, yet without a clear plan, they’ll ultimately remain wishes. So, are you ready for your wishes to come true? Then, let’s do this!
Content in a nuthsell
- Goals vs. Routine – What does work?
- SMART goals – How to make goals precise
- Goal tracking – Keep yourself accountable
- Reflection on the past year as a gateway to the new year
1. Goals vs. routine – What does work?
“Write it on your heart that every day is the best day in the year”
Do you often find yourself with many goals and ideas on how to bring them to fruition? Do you also often find yourself without a proper step-by-step plan on how to do it? I used to do that all the time. And let me tell you something: my resolutions never worked. Until I started using a routine!
A routine defines actions that you have practiced over some time, so eventually it became second nature to you. For example, taking a shower in the morning, brushing your teeth, and doing meditation could be called a morning routine. Now, some of you may think that routines are boring, and, of course, they can be. But not if you do them right for yourself.
A routine is extremely valuable because you train yourself for actions to become second nature. So, if you have the goal of increasing your circle of business contacts, you can make it a routine. You could, for instance, use five minutes during your day to screen LinkedIn for posts that resonate with you and see if you would like to comment or engage. Another option would be to get lunch with various colleagues and take the chance to meet and exchange with them.
You may want to start adding more awareness to your life. Guess what? Make it a routine! Take five minutes, three times a day, at the same time, and just focus on your breath. Breathe in to the count of five and breathe out to the count of eight. What do you witness within your body? What do you need?
These small routines help you manifest your goals step by step. If you implement one step towards your goal every day and make it a routine, you don’t have to worry that it won’t come true. You get closer to it with every passing day. This is not only efficient and valuable but also very enjoyable. And I challenge you to count your new business contacts at the end of the year and see how many you have made every single day just by engaging with others. Probably more than you would have expected!
2. SMART goals – How to make goals precise!
A routine is one of my favorite ways to make my dreams come true. Yet another one of my favorites is the SMART goals concept. SMART stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. What does that mean?
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Specific
This means that you get very clear on what you want. “I want to increase my business contacts.” This is not highly specific. Increase it by what? And what types of business contacts? Get as clear as you can! “I want to increase my business contacts by 30 people in six months. And business contacts for me are potential collaborators for the future.”
Also, use the chance to get into the game. Why is it meaningful to you?
Measurable
This makes your goal tangible. For example, you can split your goals into subgoals. just like we did it for the routines. “I want to increase my business contacts by 30 people in six months. And business contacts are potential collaborators for the future. Therefore, I want to gain five new contacts a month.”
Achievable
This is your time to reflect on whether the goal is really doable for you. Do you have the capacity to meet five new people a month and form some kind of relationship with them?
Realistic
It’s very important to not only see if the goal is achievable from our perspective, but also if this is realistic given the circumstances and the time frame.
Timely
This keeps you on time. We have already set our timeline to six months, and this one keeps you accountable!
Does this method resonate with you? Then get your goals and transform them into SMART goals!
3. Goal Tracking – Keep yourself accountable
Deadlines keep us accountable, and, to be honest, sometimes this is all that makes us move forward. Therefore, do not only set a deadline and check your results once you are there. Track them regularly.
What helps me most is to set aside a day for goal tracking. Personally, I do this on Sunday evenings because it gives me so much energy to think about goals and how far I have already come. It definitely gives me an energy boost for the coming week. And as always, choose the day and time that work best for you personally.
For this practice, I invite you to create a journal. Write down your big goal and the specific subgoals with the individual deadlines. You may even want to create a timeline. According to your plan, where would you need to be to manifest your goal? Where are you now? What went great? What would you like to improve? Do you need to adjust any deadlines or other details of the process?
Reflect upon your journey and feel the gratitude. Even if you didn’t come as far as you wanted, you did move. And this is all that counts! Don’t stop believing in yourself! Just keep going and listen to your intuition!
There is one note left, which is the thirteenth wish I was teasing you about. The last wish stays with you into the night. Here, you are allowed to open and read it. Because this wish, you will fulfill yourself.
4. Reflection on the past year as gateway for the new year
As you have seen, I am a big fan of reflection. This is the most powerful skill we can attain, and it helps us use our knowledge and power in a much better way. Therefore, I want to invite you to deeply reflect on your last year. The end-of-year season is perfect for this.
I know that sometimes it is quite hard to find a start, so I want to share some inspiration on what I do at the end of the year and how I reflect upon myself and my life. And let me tell you something: this also greatly boosts your chances of achieving your goals for the next year. Because if you take the chance to learn from your mistakes, you don’t have to do them again!
Vision Board
A beautiful way to reflect on your year is to look at your vision board. You can journal about the energy, what goals you have achieved, and what may have changed. How you may have changed. You can also use this powerful energy to create a new vision board with all the goals and wishes that you have for the coming year. If you want to get some inspiration on that, check out my blog article: What do you want for your life? – Manifesting everything you want with your perfect vision board
Map of reflection
Mindmaps are an amazing way to reflect on many areas of your life. Create one that features all the elements of your life that are important to you. You may want to add: business, important people, private lives, education, travel, health, passion, love, spirituality, and many more. Use whatever feels right to you and whatever you feel the need to reflect upon.
I hope that you achieve every single goal that you have. I wish you magic, love, and inspiration for the new year, and may your wishes unfold perfectly. If you need any help or if you are interested in individual coaching, feel free to reach out to me via Instagram @nadine.holisticelements.
Warmest,
Nadine
