I have heard mixed reviews from people whether they like setting goals or resolutions once the clock strikes midnight. I think there is power in taking a pause and evaluating how things are really going. I think too often we get caught up in the inertia of life. It is a potent and valuable practice to take inventory and keep, eliminate, prioritize, limit, expand, shift various different attributes of life. A course correction of sorts to ensure you are actually living the life you indeed want to live.
Below you will find the prompt I walk through each year, you can do it digitally OR if you are like me and like to tangibly write things down I have created a printable version.
Here are a few queues to walk through to set you up
Right off the top what are three things you want to get rid of? This could be anything, a habit, person, job, quality or trait within yourself. The important thing here is to recognize something that is holding you back, impeding your growth, movement, and ability to fully be yourself. I start with this one because generally speaking we can all jump to something we know if holding us back.
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Second item of the process is to close your eyes… well not yet, but right after you read this. You are going to take 2 mins (at least, if you don’t mediate and find it difficult to close your eyes and visualize 2 minutes is a great place to start, if you can go longer, do that!) you are going to imagine yourself in one year from this exact moment. You are going to get very specific with the visualization, who is there, what are you doing, where exactly are you, in a house, a car, are you in a different state, what are you wearing, what activity are you doing or preparing to do. I really want you to get vivid with this visualization and also I want you to be courageous. I want you to release any need or hankering to cap your visual or edit or amend because of some constraint. This is an opportunity to dream, imagine and let your heart to the work, not your logical mind. After the 2 minutes (or more) I want you to write down what you saw.
Vision writing.
From that vision can you write down three goals.
One small:
One medium:
One large:
Bonus if you have a JUMBO goal based off your vision.
Now from that vision and these three goals I want you to write down three things you can do in the next 30 days to get closer to your goals.
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Set an alarm in your phone calendar right now to check in on yourself, your goals and the tasks you have set out in front of you over the next 30 days.
Here is what I have learned from my goal setting work I have done in the past. There have been times when I set a goal and march off in the direction of achieving that goal and have blinders on, I can only see the singular goal. I have noticed if I align myself to a goal and then take action to begin achieving the goal then magic happens. Along the way I have found new opportunities I didn’t know were even a possibility. I will give you an example, about 10 years ago I set 3 goals for myself: 1. To be able to do the splits. 2. Do 1 pull up and 3. Hold a handstand. When I started thinking about how I could achieve these goals I looked up a few yoga classes in the area. I thought to myself that would be a good place to begin the process of getting strong again after I had be super focused on being pregnant and breast feeding for the years previous. I signed up for a few classes and absolutely felt amazing not only in my body but in mind and spirit as well. Now this is not to sell you on hot yoga, but rather to share a cookie crumb that I received from setting these goals and taking action to go achieve them. Soon after I started practicing I decided I wanted to teach, I signed up for yoga teacher training and went to New York for training. It was a huge deal for me at the time, Poppy was 8 months old and I was still breast feeding, I pumped enough milk to leave for her and pumped the entire time through training. This was the most fit I have ever been. I came back from teacher training and immediately started teaching yoga. Very soon after I started teaching I decided I wanted to own a yoga studio. A friend of mine and I decided to go for it. We came up with a name, did some branding, and opened the doors. By the end of that year I was able to do the splits, one pull up and hold a handstand for a breath or two. Yes, I had achieved my goals but along the way my eyes were open to new and different portals, passage ways and cookie crumb trails. Allowing myself the freedom to explore different routes to get to the goals opened up entire new areas of my life I didn’t know existed. Goals beyond my wildest dreams from one year before.
I tell you all of this because the initial goal might be exactly where you need to end up and consider along the way there might be new and even better ways to elevate your life and set new goals you never have dreamed of before.
Always allow space for magic.