Say Goodbye to the Old Year!

Ever wonder why we make such a big deal about resolutions when so many people either don't make them (less than 40%) or if they do, only about 8% actually happen? Wishful thinking maybe? Or possibly, "Where did I hide that magic wand anyway?"

So if they don't work, how about for starters we just throw out the whole idea of resolutions. Let go of the practice entirely. Decide that this year you just won't be joining that crowd.

"But what is the alternative?", you may ask. Do we just give up, hang our heads, and never get what we want or need? That seems as unworkable as a resolution.

My answer is to, instead, just set a straight up reasonable goal or intention with no pressure, no fanfare, no guarantees. Don't make any unreasonable promises either. And definitely don't run out and buy the first gadget, expensive software, or gym membership to incent you to actually do it.

Unless you are the type who needs your feet put to the fire or someone chasing you with a hot poker to ensure you get them done, then by all means hire someone to do that for (or with) you. Barring that, there is no better way to get what you want or need than to just take one small step towards it.

No big deal made of it. No huge announcement.

Still not feeling the love? Then how about this approach, one that I developed which combines a few tools I've used in the past along with a new, fun one I picked up this year.

Here goes... the simple, easy plan...

First, get a piece of paper or two (a journal if you prefer) and write down as many WINS and successes from last year you can possibly remember. Pull out last year's calendar to help remind you. Ask someone who knows you well to help fill it in even more. This is your time to pat yourself on the back and remind yourself of your successes. This is not the time to berate yourself for so little accomplished or to rag on yourself for not getting more done. Pats on the back only please!

Second, next to each win, ask yourself, "What did I learn or glean from this win or success?" Write that down next to the win. No belittling allowed here. There was a reason you accomplished it, no matter how small you deem it. What was the outcome? How did it make you feel?

Third, scan your list of what you learned from each win or success. What do they have in common? Do you see a trend or commonality? If so, write that down.

Fourth, use that commonality in setting your new goal or intention. One goal or intention. Not a huge list (unless you love lists and they motivate you), just one, simple, straight forward intention.

And finally, say goodbye to the old year. Now that you've gleaned from it what you need, let it go, send it on its way with a loving "bye, bye!" Make a celebration or ritual of it, a goodbye party if you wish, or light a candle and say a prayer but do say goodbye in an intentional, clear way.

No hanging onto the past. Now it's time to take your first baby step.

No guilt please. Say goodbye to that too. And remember, that failure is part of the process. Every successful endeavour has a few missteps or goof ups. Use those for your course correction and step once again onto your path to your accomplishment.

No step is too small. No accomplishment is unimportant.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Say-Goodbye-to-the-Old-Year!&id=8910464

Make This Your Best Year Ever!

It is almost habitual for most of us to set New Year's resolutions in January only for the momentum to fall away by the end of the month. That's why some are cynical about the whole process of setting resolutions, which I can understand. However, if you set goals in the right way and develop the right mindset then you may find that you will be able to achieve amazing things in life! Here are some key steps to setting goals and achieving your ideal life.

1. Be True to Yourself. Think about the person that you are - the people, places, habits and things that are important to you. These are your foundations and your life, habits, decisions should be built around that - the person that you are.

2. Reflect and take stock of all areas of your life. Identify where you are not in alignment with the person that you are? Consider what you would need to do to resolve this.

3. Set your vision for the future. What does that look like for you? Go into as much detail as you can here. For example, if you want to move house where do you want to go? What will your house look like? What kind of area will you be in? How many rooms will the house have? etc. Do this for all areas of your life and get absolutely clear on what you want.

4. Ask yourself why your vision is important to you? If you ask yourself 'why is this important?' 5 times your answers will indicate how strong a sense of purpose you have. The stronger that 'why', the more likely it will be that you will take action and work to stay on track when things get more challenging.

5. Don't lose sight of the present. This might sound strange given I've just asked you to set your vision for the future, but don't obsess to the point of worry about the past or the future. Enjoy each present moment as it comes. Find gratitude every day for the positive things in your life as it is. This moment is really all that matters, when it comes down to it. All the while you can be working towards progressing your life.

6. Create your own success map. You don't create the life you truly want by sitting back waiting for it to happen. it is, therefore, important that you believe you can achieve it and want to take action. Start with your end goals in mind and map out the big milestones to get there, then break those milestones down into very basic actions. Focus on the first action, schedule time to complete it and get going. Momentum builds belief and confidence and reduces overwhelm.

7. Forgive yourself and others. Sometimes feelings of guilt or resentment can really hold us back. This can be either towards yourself or others. A common example being you telling yourself that you've failed before so will fail again. This is simply a limiting belief that you tell yourself, in fact, convince yourself of. The reality is that in many instances, failure is a great way to learn and grow. Forgive yourself, support yourself the way you would support others, learn from previous experiences and set out steps that will get you to where you want to be. None of us will live our lives without making any mistakes.

8. Create positive habits. This takes time, some say it ranges between 30-66 days to create and embed a new habit. What positive habits could you create that will help you to get closer to your goal? Do it every day, stay with it, keep scheduling and completing the habit and after 30 days it'll start to get easier and will eventually become a habit. You can then consider other positive habits that would help you to make progress.

9. Start to create momentum... now! Make sure your big goal, your milestones and small steps are all visible. It is important that you have sight of them every day in order to keep your mind focused. Do what you can every day to move you closer and closer to that life that you want.

10. Celebrate success! Acknowledge and reward the progress you make from the first small step you take, to achieving each milestone and then ultimately achieving the big goal or dream you've been working towards.

Take the time to work through each of these steps and with commitment and self-discipline, you will develop the mindset required to set goals, stay on track and achieve great things. If you feel like you would benefit from the support of a coach I'd be delighted to hear from you.

You CAN do it!

http://ezinearticles.com/?Make-This-Your-Best-Year-Ever!&id=8890175

Its Your Choice

How To Motivate Yourself To Reach Your Goals

Having to do something you don't want to do isn't hard to imagine. We run into it almost every day.

It usually involves change, time, attitude and choice, but not necessarily in that order. There are some things we are faced with that bring out the two-year-old in us as we tantrum and say "no" both verbally and behaviourally. The doctor says we can't eat sweets, so we buy a big bag of Snickers. The workplace says we can't smoke, so we hatch all sorts of devious plans to do it anyway. We need to lose weight, so we skip anything that looks healthy or involves movement. It's all a big fat NO!

None of this changes the fact we need to do something different, new, better, life-saving and helpful for ourselves.

So, as an exercise, choose something you need to do. Now, let's ease into how to do it. There's no need to go whole hog and overwhelm yourself with dramatic and over-ambitious ideas right off the bat. It works best to look at other times you've made a successful change. Recall how you did it and remember the reward that came with your effort. Once you remember something you've done, you know that you truly can make wise decisions and you can continue to make them. Chances are, if something has come to mind, you did something to make it happen. The good news is that you can do it again, even better, quicker, easier.

I recommend writing your answers to these few questions:

Did you plan for success or did it "just happen?"

What inspires you to make change? Or Who?

How can you keep your focus on achieving or doing something to bring about change?

What's a reasonable time for this to happen? For example, don't plan to write a book in a weekend, no matter what those programs advertise.

If you had to defer one part of your plan this week, how would you make sure you pick back up and stay on course next week?

Do you prefer working days at a time? An hour at a time? What time of day is better for you to devote to achieving your goal?

If you were to evaluate yourself, can you see any patterns you choose that either determine your success or determine your failure?

Your goals are unique to you and the way you choose to succeed at succeeding or succeed at failing are unique to you. These questions will help you look deeply into your patterns of behavior and pick the parts that are more likely to work for your success. You can determine what different choices you can apply this time, based on what you know about yourself, to enjoy the process and achieve a good outcome.

Tips:

Create a plan for yourself. Write a daily plan that includes action steps. At the end of the week, you can see all the positive steps you've taken. If they are small steps, they are still positive. Don't discount them. Look at your week. Were there days you reverted or wanted to revert back to "the way I've always done it?"

If there were times you felt yourself slipping back into old habits or resisting change, make a list of things you can do if this happens again.

http://ezinearticles.com/?How-To-Motivate-Yourself-To-Reach-Your-Goals&id=8937032

It's Not Over Till You Win

The Beginner's Guide to Goal Setting

The practice of goal setting is essential to long-term success. The main reason is that it is a prior condition for happiness and success. As psychologists say, those who try to define clearly their goals will live happier as they will make consistent progress to reach them. Acknowledge that writing goals enhances power and performance. This help you concentrate your resources efficiently and keep you motivated when you feel like giving up. If you've never written goals, it is time to work on them.

1. Make a rough draft of your goals. Start asking yourself questions about what you want for your life. Your answers can be general statements, but could help focus on the things that really matter to you. It is necessary to identify the things you value so as to make decision and keep you concentrated on your end goals.

2. Itemize your goals. Make them more specific. Think about things you want to achieve in each area of your life, whether it is your career, finances, family, social relationship or personal development goals. Consider what you want to develop or change with time. Ask yourself questions about the way you'd like to achieve goals and to approach them within 1, 5, 10 year timeframe.

3. Create goals using the S.M.A.R.T method. This acronym is a system used by educators to identify, set and achieve goals. This means your goals must meet five criteria: they must be Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Timely. Then think to get them solidified by affirming your commitment to completing the goals with positive statements. These statements will be seen as the roadmap for setting goals for today, tomorrow, next week, next month and next year.

4. Once you set your goals, achieve them, starting with the small ones. Get into the habit of setting goals and achieving goals. And each time you reach a goal, allow yourself to celebrate your achievement accordingly. You will pill up successes! By the way, take time to assess each goal process to be more successful.

5. Keep track of the progress made towards your personal and professional goals. This is the key to keep you motivated and to make sure you hit your target dates. Get into the habit of encouraging yourself so that you reach your personal development goal easily.

6. Last but not least, review your written goals as frequently as possible: daily, weekly, monthly... Knowing each step you have to make to move towards your goals is the only way to turn them into reality.

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Beginners-Guide-to-Goal-Setting&id=8917157

Be Motivated

Top 7 Personal Development Tips to Help You Be Your Best

Most people are the victims of their own circumstances. What they don't understand is that often their circumstances are a result of the decisions they make. Sometimes bad things do happen to us, and these are things we have no control over. More often what happens to us is the result of the decisions we have made based on what we believe.

So how do you change all that? How do you get rid of limiting beliefs and feelings that no longer serve you? How do you attract positive things into your life? You do this by changing how you think. The problem is, how do you change what you think?

Just as Rome wasn't built in a day, changing what you believe to attract what you want starts one day at a time. The only time you have is now. When tomorrow comes, it will be today. Yesterday is gone, and since we can do nothing to change it, the best thing to do is learn from it, let it go and move on.

Here are seven things you can do to help you do just that:

1. Write in your journal daily.

If you don't have a journal, I highly recommend that you begin keeping one. The key here is not to write about what has happened to you. Write about the unresolved feelings you have over the issues in your life. When you do this, then you can let those feelings go. Letting negative feelings go will help you feel better.

I learned that by focusing on the unresolved feelings I had, instead of the people, places and things in my life, I could feel any way I wanted to. It was OK to feel the way I did. By acknowledging my feelings and then feeling them, they couldn't cause me to self sabotage anymore.

2. Meditate daily.

Meditation is one of the most effective ways to resolve anything. By meditating just 20 minutes per day, you can totally revolutionize your life. The reason is that meditation is calming. It helps you to relax, and it also helps you to stay in the moment.

Much of our stress comes from thinking about things in the past or worrying about future events, things we have no control over or can't change. When we let go of these things and focus on the moment we are in, then we can enjoy the moment and respond to those things we need to take care of now, not worry about things that may never happen.

3. Believe that you will win.

Henry Ford once said, "If you believe you can, or you believe you can't, you are right." What you believe is absolutely crucial to your success because it will influence the decisions you make.

You will make choices based on how you feel, not based on what is really happening or what is truly reality. You are not your circumstances. If your circumstances are based on your choices, then you can change your circumstances by changing your choices. Believe that you will win and you will.

4. Write goals and plans of action.

To have what you want you must know what you want. This is your starting point. Once you know what you want, then you need to set a goal and then create a plan of action to achieve that goal. Just make sure that your beliefs are in line with what you want. Otherwise you won't be happy with what you get when you get it.

5. Become well rounded.

What I mean by this is that want to get an education. Study all types of things like history, philosophy and other disciplines. Read the classics. Pay particular attention to works like "The Science of Getting Rich," by Wallace Wattles and "The Master Key System," by Charles Haanel. These works can help you develop self mastery in your life. They can also help you achieve the things you want to achieve. Being well rounded helps you understand the world better. More importantly, it helps you to understand who you are and find your purpose.

6. Use positive affirmations.

Wrong or negative thinking can be one of the worst things you can engage in. When we're negative and pessimistic, we tend to attract more negative and pessimistic into our lives. Like attracts like.

Affirmations help you develop the right mindset so that you bring these things into your life. The key here is to use repetition. The more you repeat these positive phrases, the more likely they are to sink deep into your subconscious where they take root and become an automatic part of your thinking.

7. Share personal growth with others.

Everything in the universe is made of energy and so everything is an energy exchange. What you send out into the universe will come back to you, so you want to send out positive. As Zig Ziglar says, "You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want." By helping others, you will get what you want because what you send out into the universe comes back to you

http://ezinearticles.com/?Top-7-Personal-Development-Tips-to-Help-You-Be-Your-Best&id=8892185

Unleashing the Female Goal-Getter Within

As women sometimes we give so much to others that we forget to do things for ourselves. We cater to the needs of others day after day, month after month, and year after year, and before we know it our dreams have been put on the back burner. If that is your story you can change it right now.

You deserve to achieve every dream that is in your heart, and you must begin to think that you deserve to be a goal-getter. Becoming a female goal-getter just means that you are a woman who is motivated, to achieve her goals and dreams. And it doesn't matter how long you have had your dream in your heart, you still have time to get it in your hands. Becoming a female goal-getter doesn't mean that you are selfish, and it doesn't mean that you are neglecting people or things around you, but what it does mean is that you are making a decision to go for what you want, in a very purposeful and powerful way.

Becoming a goal-getter also means that you are creating space in your life for you. More than likely if I ask you if you have any goals, you will say "yes." Because most of us do have goals, maybe we haven't shared them with anyone, or maybe we have, but most of us have something within, that we want to achieve. And it is not beneficial if we continue to move forward without mastering our goals.

What goal are you trying to achieve? What dream is in your heart, that you would love to get in your hands? What is something that you have wanted to do, but you haven't found the motivation to do it? Do you feel like it is too late? If you feel like it is too late, then I have good news for you. It is not too late, you can still take steps to become a goal-getter. This can get you on the path to happiness and feeling fulfilled.

You can even start becoming a goal-getter today, by putting your priorities in order. Set up a plan and make your goals happen. Do what you need to do to realistically reach your dreams. Set small goals that you can easily achieve, and then work on conquering bigger goals. Don't think about how much time has passed by, but think about the fact that you have this moment, to be all that you were born to be

http://ezinearticles.com/?Unleashing-the-Female-Goal-Getter-Within&id=8887454

Your Best Life Awaits You When You Are Determined to Succeed

Many of us have heard these words before, my mind is made up and there is no stopping me. Those words represent a made up mind, the kind of which when set in motion results in achievement.

It is a good thing Thomas Edison did not give up on finding a way to improve incandescent lighting which is part of what we know as the the light bulb for home use. History tells us Edison tried and failed 10,000 times and ultimately his determined mind is what households around the world enjoy to this day.

The lesson for each of us to take from Thomas Edison is to be determined and do not throw in the towel when success eludes us. Determination must be part of your arsenal when it comes to achieving any level of success, remember this and you will succeed more times than not.

Our best life is possible when we tap into our infinite talent, gifts and determination. This trifecta is the ultimate success formula for transforming from impossible to the possible in life. Show me a successful person without determination and I will show you a person who will not achieve the success they so richly deserve.

Another key point to keep in mind is to know your purpose. So many people ask what their purpose is in life and I encourage them to dig deep for the fire burning on the inside of them. In other words, what do you love to do? Do you love something so much you would perform the work and or activity without pay?

Taking the burning desire to passion would be a great transition because that is exactly what is involved in the process. We must be passionate about what we want in life and perform at the level that crosses into the spectrum called your essence.

Your essence represents the very fiber of your being. To put it another way, once you tap into your essence you flow like the wind we cannot see but it exist none the less. Success is for the taking when we combine determination with a willingness to not quit on ourself, blend our gifts and talents and know what our purpose and passion is.

We can take all that we know and share it with everyone we know and create a purposeful greater good for humanity as a whole. You can live your best life possible when you are determined to succeed, start the process today.

http://ezinearticles.com/?Your-Best-Life-Awaits-You-When-You-Are-Determined-to-Succeed&id=4778484