By Paul Hunter
Tis the season for celebration, eating and drinking. It also seems to be the season for letting loose and forgetting about all the hard work you set out to do for your New Year’s resolutions this year. How did that go? If you are like 97% of the population, 1) you’re not alone, and 2) you’re not where you’d like to be. I have found a large majority of people “just want to get through the holidays” and then they’ll get down to it. I challenge you to get a head start now. Sure! Begin your resolutions/goals now before the obstacles get a hold of you.
A client recently shared with me that on one of the popular weight loss reality shows, each participant was offered to eat six giant cupcakes, which provided that participant the opportunity to choose someone from the other team to leave the show. The people who chose to eat the cupcakes were also the ones who had to weigh in, thus responsible for losing weight for the team. These people had to choose between maintaining their vision of their goal or something that would derail them from their goals and vision.
Many of us have found ourselves in this position whether it is with food and weight loss, time on the Internet or watching television and getting things done, working and not going home. Hmm, French fries or the fruit cup? Whatever it is, life is full of obstacles and objections to what we want out of life. It is in the quiet moments that the changing decisions are made.
The trick to success, if there is one, is to understand what you want and want it bad enough that you are able to forgo those things that will hinder you from obtaining what you set out to do in the first place.
Goal setting in and of itself can be an art. We must know what we want and put it on paper, not just in our heads. Ask most people and they’ll mention they know what they want and it’s right in their heads. Until we write the goals down, they never seem to materialize. Ever heard of S.M.A.R.T. Goals? These are goals that are (S)pecific, (M)easurable, (A)chievable, (R)elevant and (T)ime-Oriented. When you find something you want, write your goal in such a way that it covers all elements of a S.M.A.R.T. Goal and you’ll be one step closer to success.
Once you know what you want and have written it in such a way, you must keep it in front of you. Reading through your list of goals at every meal will help. Pictures will help, too. Peruse through magazines and find pictures of things you want, cut them out and make a book to look through. I recently read about a woman who did this and, when she moved into her new home, had a friend gasp as she looked through this woman’s “goal-book” and saw pictures of rooms set up the same way as the ones in her new home, including paint colors and furniture. This woman knew what she wanted and kept it in front of her.
Two months from now, people will be asking what your New Year’s resolutions are. Do you wait until Christmas to think about such things? “Oh, what will I wish for this next year?” Mom told me, “If wishes were horses, then beggars would ride.” This next year, you have the opportunity to make it your best year yet. Think about how many actual years old you are and all the knowledge and wisdom you have collected, and put it to good use this next year.
I warn you to not look back and think of what might have been. Rather, look head and work towards what will become and Make it a Phenomenal Year!