How to Set Goals and Smash Them

What is it that you want more than anything? What conscious steps can you take right now to ensure you’re moving in the direction of your desires? What are you going to do to make this year the best year ever?

1. Reflection. Before we get all fired up about the new year, it’s important that we check in with our past year selves. There’s so much hype around New Year’s resolutions and not a whole lot of recognition for all the year’s successes.Acknowledge your accomplishments. First things first. Before you set new goals for the year, thank yourself for all of your achievements, all of your best qualities and all that you are capable of.

2. Letting Go. A crucial prerequisite to having the best year ever is to release all the icky, negative, yucky, no good, heavy, unnecessary bull shit from the previous year.You gotta WHOOSH it all out. Cleanse. We’re talking energy. Purify that psyche. Out with the old, in with the new. Cause there won’t be any room to allow in abundance, joy and prosperity without making some space first.What are some things you’re holding on to that are no longer serving you? What steps can you take to release any negative emotions and start fresh?

3. Mindset reset. Many of us aren’t conscious thinkers all of the time. It’s hard to be intentional about our thoughts when there are so many distractions. Worries, to do lists, emotions. We get caught up in the commotion of every day life. It helps to pause.

We may not realize that we’re being whiny, complain-y, gloomy fun suckers, BUT WE ARE. Seriously. All the time. Stop that.We train our brains to think in terms of lack. We focus on the ugly stuff instead of the good shit. And it’s contagious. TAKE BACK YOUR THOUGHTS. Get in the drivers seat and demand control. Invest some time in resetting your thought patterns. Because they shape your entire life experience.

4. Why do we set goals? We live in a goal-centric society. We’re obsessed with ambition, desires, improvement. For those growth seeking individuals, goals give us a sense of purpose, something to be working towards. But like the idea of happiness, it’s easy to get caught up in the process of attaining these ideals, while losing sight of why we’re going after them in the first place.Why do we goal set?

• to improve the quality of our lifestyle in some way

• to ultimately bring us more enjoyment, joy and pleasure

• to fulfill our sense of purpose

• to bring us closer to self mastery, the art of evolving our behaviors in order to optimize our state of function

What are your reasons for goal setting? What areas do you seek improvement in the most?

5. What do we want? When goal setting, it helps to identify exactly what we want. Having a vague or general sense of our hopes and dreams doesn’t get us very far. Through meticulously specific, vivid clarity, we start to shape our destinies.

Journaling helps sort out jumbled thoughts. Grab a notebook and start a journal style entry on DESIRE. From your stream of consciousness, write about all the things you want. Whatever comes to mind. Write for as long as you can, or set a timer for at least five minutes. This is a freestyle session, so don’t linger on form. Just write.After you’re through, take a look at what you came up with. Allow what you wrote to soak for a few moments. When you’re ready, start to notice any patterns or themes. Circle or highlight the things that stand out. Single out a few of your most important wishes for the coming year.

6. Why New Year’s resolutions don’t work. The sneaky thing about mastering New Year’s goals is that you gotta keep ’em simple and you gotta keep ’em few. It’s the first of the year. You’re feeling fresh and  determined. But by February? Your moxie has wilted. You set overly romantic expectations, have overwhelmed yourself with enthusiasm and you burned yourself out. So you say fuck it and revert back to the way your life was pre mega ambitions.

How do you break the cycle? Set three, manageable goals to start. If you plow through them, add more later. But shoot for three. It’s easy to get caught up in the process and never finish what you set out to do. Success lies in the follow through.

7. Start. Ideas are N O T H I N G without action. Goals, resolutions, hopes, desires, dreams, visions, intentions. They’re inanimate without follow through. You gotta put in the work. You’ve got to bring them to life!Take in a big, heaping gulp of air. And START! Pick something. One teeny tiny action you can take right now to jump start your new year.

8. Progress. Once you accomplish a goal, it’s important that you acknowledge the accomplishment. Check something off, cross it out, write it down on paper. Have a fucking dance party! Announce it. Soak it in. High five yourself in the mirror.  For accomplishment’s sake, please give yourself praise. It’s part of the process.

Make getting shit DONE a habit. Make finishing things a regular occasion. Make setting goals and SMASHING THEM a frequent and familiar occurrence.

Make this year victorious.