Hands up those who usually set a New Year’s Resolution (goals), maintain it for a short time (less than a month) and then give up because it seems all too hard to maintain? Can I at this point, make a confession? I used to do this all the time also. In fact, it got to the point that I didn’t bother setting New Year’s Goals because I thought they were a waste of time. That is, until I learned how to set authentic goals and strategically plan them for the year. I went to a number of courses, I learned from some pretty amazing people: Mike Dooley, Tony Robbins, Christopher Howard, Dr John Demartini to name a few. I am going to share with you the easiest 1 page document to create a POWERFUL 2015.
Goal setting is about creating a year that truly resonates with YOU. It is aligned with your deepest core beliefs. You will need to take ACTION because taking action while injecting personality and humour and fun (or as I call it, playing at 100%) ensures you get the most value out of your goals.
This process is designed so that this year, 2015, is your best year yet! As well as giving you clear understandings of where it is that you are going to. A very important feature that many leave out of their goal setting is to have FUN and be relaxed about it. Goals are purely here to let you know you are on track.
Having CLARITY about where it is that you want to go for the year is important and this is where this one page document really comes into its own.
Before we start on the document, there are 3 questions I want you to ask yourself.
- What actually WORKED well for me in 2015?
Jot down a couple bullet points only. You only need to spend about 30-45 seconds on this.
As you are writing down all the things that worked well for you, just think back through the year. Was there a theme that you see emerging? Or did the successes relate to one particular area of your life?
- What are some of the things I can improve in 2015?
Would it be more exercise, better health, more relaxation time, self-improvement, increased finances. What would it be for you?
- What is the ONE thing you would like to MASTER in 2015?
Be quite specific – pick one thing. Look at the answers you gave from questions 1 and 2 and then pick 1 thing. Not 3 things, not 5 things – 1 thing.
For me, in previous years it has been: inner peace, meditation, patience.
“It is said that people overestimate what they can do in a year and underestimate what they can do in a lifetime”.
Look for goals that make you feel expansive, that make you feel GOOD. Inside you feel great thinking about them. It has to make you feel good otherwise it isn’t going to work for you.
There are 2 types of energy on this earth. There is energy that expands and energy that contracts. Be aware of HOW your body feels when you set this goal. Goals are designed to enrich your life – to make you feel free, make you feel open, make you feel expansive by nature and most importantly, to make you feel good when you look at them.
Let’s get started!
Split a one-page document in half. We will start at the bottom where you will create a 3×3 table with 9 cells (squares). Fill in each of the squares with the heading and answers based on the following 9 areas:
- Happiness/Wellbeing
What are some things that make you feel happy?
Write out 3 things that you would like to do that will make you feel either happier or have a greater sense of wellbeing. Only have a maximum of 3 goals in each area. 3 seems to be the magic number according to a number of studies done on goal setting. Spend roughly 30 seconds on this. The faster you write, the more in flow you go.
- Freedom/Travel
Feel free to add in travel here as freedom can often be interchanged with travel for many people. What will make you feel the most FREE in 2015? This could include places you want to go to, experience, things that will inspire freedom in you. It may be a health retreat or a 10 day Vipassana. Whatever freedom means to you.
- Spiritual/Mental
What 3 activities can I do in 2015 that will make me feel more spiritual or will assist me more from a mental capacity? It may be contemplating once a day, getting creative and getting new ideas, looking for more insights, meditating, doing courses.
- Education/Development
What sort of things can I do 2 develop myself and educate myself personally? e.g educational courses, mentors, coaches, monthly groups, webinars etc.
- Relationships (self and others)
In 2015, what’s really going to make me feel good about the relationship I have with myself and the relationship I have with others?
For example: if you are in a relationship with someone; perhaps you might want to sit down once a month for about 2 hours and have a “share night”. Spend 5 minutes just sharing and then swap. If needed, set a timer. One person speaks for about 5 minutes while the other just listens and vice versa. This helps you to connect at a really deep level. You might also want to do this with your close friends. This is called 100% listening, 100% speaking. You don’t interrupt, you just listen to what the other is saying.
Another example might be to schedule in time blocks of 20 minutes or 1 hour – whatever suits you, to spend face to face time with family/friends at a café or telephone. Make the time to really connect.
- Health
What are 3 things I am going to do in 2015 to improve my health? What actions do I need to take to get my health to where I want it? It may be a 20 minute walk 3 times a week along the beach or in nature, it may be to add in more superfoods for higher cellular vibration, it may be to see a Naturopath or acupuncturist once a month. Whatever it is that you need to do to take your health to the next higher level.
- Career
What is it that is going to move my career forward? This is different to just increasing your income. This is about career fulfilment.
- Finance
What is it you’d like to see happening in your finances in 2015? Make it realistic and achievable. Your body will tell if it is or isn’t. You will feel expansive or contracting when you write it and certainly when you read it back to yourself.
You may wish to have a specific amount in a savings account, a particular (and realistic) increase in earnings, all credit cards paid off, a specific amount in earnings coming in each week.
- Family
Or it may be friends instead of family –depending on your situation. How do you want to connect, how do you want to talk to each other, how do you want to stay connected with each other? It may be a 30 minute phone call each month, or a certain amount of weekend visits with specific family members. If you have kids, it may be doing to the park once a week to spend quality one on one time with them or going to an animal park with them.
By filling in the 9 squares first before you do all the other areas, it gets your mind on focus and in flow. It gets you focused on your path for 2015. This all helps you get clearer on your major objectives to be, your life purpose, your action question and your master skill.
Now we get started on the top half of the page. This consists of four rows (with headings):
- My Major Objective for 2015.
I want you to think to yourself – as I go into this New Year, will this major objective, if I create it and if I achieve it and master it, will this have made my entire year worthwhile?
Please write it in this format: Master my ________________________ (diet, health, finances, physique, focus etc)
- My Life Purpose
If you are not sure what your purpose is, there are 4 questions you can ask yourself:
- What does my major objective mean to me?
- Why is that important to me?
- What are the consequences of not doing that?
- Why do I bother?
Once these 4 questions are answered, ask one final question: If I was the last person on planet earth and no one else existed and the earth needed nothing, what would I do with my time? How would I spend my day?
If you still don’t have a purpose, look at what you were looking to master and make THAT your life purpose.
If you wrote down something related finances, then your purpose that you can write down might be to expand your finances with education, strategy and tactics.
If your major objective was physique, then your life purpose might be to transform your physique with exercise, discipline and focus.
If you wrote down “to master relationships” – it may be to create a relationship with deep connection.
A purpose is simply a concise sentence that gives you something to link back to if you ever get lost.
- My Action Question
When you ask the mind a question, the mind is forced to do some kind of action. E.g. how can I continue to make even more money today? Or, How can I continue to keep feeling this healthy, this amazing today?
Get into the habit of asking yourself questions that presuppose the existence of what you’re looking for.
Your brain cannot have 2 opposing thoughts occurring simultaneously – it will either have an expansive thought or a contractive though but never both at the same time.
By using the word “THIS”, it creates a temporal (time) slam. THIS presupposes it already exists right now!
- My Master Skill
A master skill is a skill that defines the essence of your craft. What makes you the best in your area? What makes you stand out? This question may be something that takes a bit of time to come up with. It took me 2 weeks of considering, refining and pondering before I came up with mine. Be patient with yourself. Keep asking yourself questions and it will come to you.
A final recommendation to a common question: What about the goals you don’t achieve in 2015? I have a very simple answer to that: just change the year in which you wish to achieve it! Goals are meant to stretch you, not stress you. If you haven’t achieved it, look back over it and see if it was realistic, or achievable. Did you set it in too short a time frame?
One last thought: The world belongs to those who take ACTION