How This Simple Goal Setting Practice Can Be a Gamechanger in 2020

Publishing ICONIC LIFE is my first love. I am also classically trained as an executive coach, which comes in handy when I need a coaching moment for my team or myself. Throughout my life I’ve leaned on this training, and I am going to share one of my favorite processes with you to inspire you to live the beautiful life you imagine beginning with this new year.

I’m not a believer in resolutions; they can be forgotten before the end of January. In fact, 25 percent of people who declare resolutions in the New Year give up by the end of the first week. I am a believer in shifting your mindset, creating new habits and embracing a new approach. These are long and lasting lifestyle shifts that can create the change you want. There are simple and effective goal setting strategies you can take yourself through if you want to start making a plan for an even better 2020. I have been doing this for 24 years now. You may know it as the “MORE OF/LESS OF” coaching process.

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GET STARTED
Start with a blank piece of paper and write down everything that happened last year—the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the memorable and meaningful.

Walk your brain down memory lane beginning with January 1, 2018 and freely list everything that pops into your mind: A great trip, an awesome meal, an idea you had, a pair of shoes that made you feel powerful. Maybe even a chance encounter, a chat with a friend, or something that angered you. No matter how big or how small, include it on this list. Make this an event; take 30 minutes to one hour to create your list. You can:

Brew some amazing coffee, sit in your favorite chair and get going.

Take a hike alone, open your notebook and go.

Meditate in your comfy clothes, drink some tea and go.

Light a fire, open a bottle of wine and go.

The idea is to break a pattern so that you can see something new.

When you’re done, simply reflect. Take your time and look at what resonates with you.

What feels good? What raises your blood pressure when you read it?

Using two different colored highlighters, begin sorting through which items you want “MORE OF/ LESS OF.” Be brutally honest with yourself. No one is checking your work, and this is a private document. When you’re completely honest with yourself, you’ll find your path and heart’s desire for the new year.

THE NEXT STEP
When you identify what you want “MORE OF,” start journaling ways to do just that. Take your time, as the answers may appear slowly. As the wonderful Wayne Dyer always said, “Simply notice.” From here, you can write your goals or commitment statements to get you from where you are today to where you want to go. I encourage you to write three to five goals for yourself. Too many turns into a list you’ll never achieve. Focus is the friend of success.

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Set proactive and effective goals for yourself. If you don’t set a goal, you can’t achieve it. If you write it down, you are 42 percent more likely to achieve it. Tell others about your goals, and that likeliness to achieve your goal soars again. Report your weekly progress to a friend or accountability partner, and your success will be so close you can touch it.(See our sidebar below for recommendations on the best goal-setting apps.)

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A well-known Harvard study asked graduate students if they had clear, written goals for their future and plans to turn them into reality. Only three percent of the students had written goals and plans to accomplish them. Thirteen percent had goals in their minds but hadn’t written them down. A staggering 84 percent had no goals at all.

Ten years later the same group of students was interviewed again, and the conclusion of the study validates the power of goal-setting and writing them down. The 13 percent of the class who had goals, but did not write them down, earned twice the amount of the 84 percent who had no goals. The three percent who had written goals were earning, on average, 10 times as much as the other 97 percent of the class combined.

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One last piece on goal-setting: Remember to write SMART goals—Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Time-Sensitive. When you have the specifics the roadmap to success contains all the information you need, and when you get where you want to go you’ll know you’re there.

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