Leave a Comment:
(2) comments
Add Your Reply
Menu
I can’t believe the year 2015 is nearing a close already in just four short weeks. Are you the type that waits until the New Year to decide what dreams you have you are going to turn into goals and start succeeding to accomplish them? My question to you is, why wait? It’s time to focus on the steps it will take to succeed.
I have learned to begin planning for the New Year in the last quarter of the current year so that I can begin formulating a real plan to succeed at whatever it is I choose to accomplish. The saying goes: “If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.” I would rather succeed. The saying however is very true. Many people will make a list of resolutions for the New Year. I wish I could tell you that all it took was making a list to succeed at whatever you place upon it, but that isn’t the case. Most people don’t take the time to do more than write the list, there is no plan, there is no goal date, and there are no steps to reach that resolution.
Make that different this coming year. Start now with making that list of things you wish to change in the New Year. Here’s what some lists will look like: lose weight, write a book, get a better paying job, and get out of debt and so on. As you look at a list that might be similar in some areas to what you wish to do what is the plan to do those goals? Let’s try to figure this out together for a moment.
The first item is lose weight, but without an actual plan for eating healthier, doing some exercise and setting a goal of how much to lose and a date you wish to do that by, you will last a week if that long on this particular item. Or you will reach the end of 2016 wishing you had done the steps to succeed with losing weight. In order to succeed at this dream you need a goal. Do you need to lose 50 pounds? By what date would you like to lose that weight? How many pounds do you need to lose a month to reach that goal? How many pounds a week do you need to lose? What type of plan do you have for eating? Are you cutting out soda, sugar, wheat or counting calories? Are you adding exercise, if so, how often, what type, cardio or strength, how about both? These are questions you need to ask yourself in order to make this particular goal actually happen and create the steps you need to succeed.
The process to any dream is to set a goal and date to make it accomplished. If you wish to lose weight in 2016 and you want to lose 50 pounds by the holidays where you see family and friends, lets say November then you have a time frame. If you wait to start in January then you have 11 months to accomplish this goal. You then take 50 pounds and divide it by 11 months to get 4.54 pounds a month. You can even go as far as calculating out how much each week you need to lose of 1.135 to meet that goal.
However, you do need to decide if you are going to take up exercise, what type and for how long. Let’s just say three days a week for an hour each of those days. You will do 30 minutes of cardio (walking, bicycling, elliptical, etc.) and 30 minutes of strength training on those days also. The strength training may consist of shoulders, biceps, and chest one day, legs, butt and abs the next and back with triceps the third day. That creates a plan for exercise, and then there is eating. You plan on cutting out soft drinks, drink more water, eat vegetables/salad with lunch and dinner meals, eat your serving of fruit with breakfast and reduce your portions overall. Now that’s a plan you can do something with each day. All you focus on is one week at a time, scheduling in your exercise, preparing meals, then take the steps each day doing what you planned.
The same holds true for anything else on your list. You figure out what you want to have accomplished by a goal date and work backwards. You aren’t focused on this huge thing that seems overwhelming and you drop the ball a week into the year because you now feel you can’t possibly accomplish the list. Break it down into small steps and focus only on a week at a time when you schedule it on your calendar then focus only on that day. These baby steps you are taking and choices you make will eventually get you to your goals.
Now is the time to start creating that list and figuring out what you really need to do to make them happen. Don’t wish you could do this list; make it so you CAN do your dreams and goals so you can succeed in 2016. Life will be better for you overall as you will be accomplishing that which you have always wanted to do instead of wishing and dreaming about it.
Make 2016 your year to achieve those goals you really want and not focus on a list you will toss aside a week into the New Year. All it takes is one step, then one more when you climb the stairs and that’s all it takes to accomplish and succeed at your goals.
I hope you will take a moment to share this post and leave a comment on how you plan to succeed in 2016. What goals do you have you always wanted to accomplish?
Have a blessed week!