How to Create an Action Plan for Your New Year’s Goals
Hello 2021! THE NEW YEAR IS HERE! Each new year brings me hope about what is to come. Especially in these uncertain times, we have the ability in this new year to MAKE. THINGS. HAPPEN.
Let’s talk for a minute about New Year’s goals! A new year means new goals to achieve in the next 12 months. Do you struggle to achieve your New Year’s resolutions? These goals are oftentimes hard to stick to for a whole year and succeed! Do you find yourself drifting from one goal to the next without success? Today I am sharing with you how to set actionable goals, find motivation to stick to them, and be successful!
Why is it important to set goals? Goals are so important in life! It provides us with motivation, purpose, and drive to achieve. Without goals, we are aimless. Goals are also considered benchmarks to determine success. Once we succeed at achieving a goal, our confidence increases.
Specific Goals
First, we must define our goals for the new year being as SPECIFIC as possible. I encourage you to sit down and write it out! The goal should be well-defined and straight-forward. How do you plan to reach this goal? Answer the 5Ws – who, what, when, where, why.
Measurable Goals
Second, we need to make our goal MEASURABLE. After clearly defining the goals, we will add more details to include how you plan to track your goal. How will you know when you achieve your goal? For example, how many times per week or per month will you engage in the action?
Attainable Goals
How can you make this goal achievable? We want the goal to ‘raise the bar’, challenge us, and bring satisfaction. It should be difficult, but not impossible. We don’t want to set the goal so high that it is impossible to achieve. When a goal becomes unattainable it can really be a confidence killer!
Think hard through all the resources you need to make it successful. How will you find the time? Is there anything you need to buy or collect to make this goal happen? Are there people that can help support you? Is there any research you need to do beforehand?
Relevant Goals
Why do you want to achieve this goal? Write out a few reasons why this goal is important to you. It should provide benefit to your personal progress. If you don’t really want to achieve it, then you will likely have low motivation to actually put in the work.
Time-Bound Goals
Deadlines are very important to goal setting. Deadlines allow us to know when we have achieved success. Without deadlines, our goals just fade away. Think about a time, maybe at work or school, in which you had a deadline to finish a project. That deadline likely increased your sense of urgency! Deadlines help quicken achievement.
Evaluating Goals
Once our goal’s deadline occurs, it is important to evaluate our success of the goal. Were you successful or could there be some improvements? Give yourself an opportunity to assess and create a new or adapted goal for the next time period.
Examples:
Using the above guidelines, some examples include:
- I will exercise at the gym three times per week for the next month to improve my health.
- I will update my resume by February 1st to include all my past job experiences.
- The first weekend of every month, I will contact at least one family member to stay in touch.
- I will read 6 books over the next 12 months focused on business so that I can increase my own leadership skills.
- I will watch one documentary each month for the next 6 months to gain more knowledge about the world.
Helpful Tips:
Tip #1: Make your goal an ACTIONABLE behavior (i.e., workout, update, call, read, watch, etc.). We have 100% control over our behaviors, making these goals 100% achievable.
Tip #2: Write your goal in the positive sense (not negative) – you want to achieve something, not avoid something. Notice I am not saying that I want to avoid certain things or stop doing something. Instead, we want to focus on improving purposeful behaviors.
Tip #3: When it comes to a new year’s resolution, 12 months can be a long time. I encourage you to break the goal into more frequent deadlines that are periodically evaluated. For example, let’s say my new year’s goal is to workout 3 times per week. If I set a 12-month deadline, my goal will likely fade away before I ever come close to that deadline. Instead, I want to set an initial deadline of one month and at that time, I will evaluate the success of my goal and make any necessary changes for the next month.
Tip #4: Write it out or tell someone about your goal and action plan to be more accountable to achieving your goal.
The Power of Motivation
Most of our motivation occurs after we successfully achieve a goal. Think about the time you accomplished a goal and the feeling you experienced afterwards. That ‘after feeling’ is the true motivation. But sometimes it is hard to get started on our goal. When you struggle to get motivation, I encourage you to set a REWARD SYSTEM. A reward system is any type of external motivation to help you achieve the goal. For example, I am personally always motivated by food. If my goal is to workout three times this week, and I achieve it, then my reward will be a cinnamon roll for breakfast next weekend. Be creative in your reward system, but make sure you stick to it! If you don’t achieve the goal, then you can’t have the reward.
You Can Do This!
What will your goal be for 2021? You can do this. I encourage you to write out your goal and be consistent. Set a reward system when you struggle with motivation. Let’s make 2021 your best year yet!
