I had been discussing goals in my previous posts this new year. That’s because I firmly believe that setting goals is key to a successful and meaningful life. Without goals, we wouldn’t have direction. But when we do, we step out every day with purpose.

Goal-Setting is one of my favorite topics in the workshops that I conduct for my clients. I like the topic so much that I don’t get tired discussing this topic. That’s also why I encourage companies/business owners to do strategic planning sessions before year end or at the start of the year. Those who do this exercise achieve better results than those who don’t.

Now, let me share with you some strategies to help you achieve your goals this year.

1. Make sure your goals are SMART.

   I discussed this in my previous post SMART Goals for Smart Moms and Dads. Click here to read the details.

2. Plan.

   Plan how you will achieve your goals. Don’t just make a list of your big goals for the year. These will not happen like magic even if you list them down. You have to plan your strategy. How will you get from where you are now to where you want to go? What steps or actions should you take to achieve your goals? Break down your goals into smaller and easily achievable results.

3. Remind yourself of your goals daily.

   There are several ways to do this. You can have a list and you read that list daily. You can have a vision board and look at it daily. You can write your goals down in your planner and use your planner to remind you to act on your goals daily. You can do all of these. I have all three. I use all three. I list my goals in the different aspects of my life in my Novena to God’s Love. I read it daily in my prayer time in the morning. I have a vision board that is displayed in my home office. I see it many times daily. I stare at my vision board every morning. I write my goals both long-term and short-term in my planner/planning pages. I believe that these are contributing factors to my success in achieving most of my goals year after year. I usually achieve 90-99% of my goals each year. That one or two goals usually which are not achieved on the same year are achieved a year after.

4. Be disciplined to act on your plan. Stick to your plan as much as you can.

   That’s how you develop discipline. remind yourself of your plan and live out your plan every single day. Plans are useless unless you implement them. Plans are nothing unless you make use of them. You will simply waste your precious time planning if you don’t intend to follow through. Don’t waste your time by planning or writing nicely on your planner and then end up not doing what you planned to do. Just take it one day at a time. before you know it, you’d be acting on your goals week by week. Then, as you stay disciplined, you form your success habits eventually. When acting on your goals become a habit, your chances of achieving your goals become higher. It’s almost guaranteed.

   

5. Celebrate wins/milestones along the way.

   Make time to celebrate your victories as you move closer to your big goals. This way, you are encouraged to go on as you recognize and reward your efforts. What I usually do is I celebrate my small wins by doing something I like doing after I finish a specific task or milestone. It can be as simple as reading a chapter of my favorite book or having a smoothie or having chocolates. It’s up to you.

A couple of years ago, I designed my own planning pages wherein these strategies that I share with you are integrated. I wanted to design a tool that other people can use to help them develop or acquire the success habits that I had been living out in the past decades of my life. I tested them first by using these planning pages myself. Then, a few days ago, after finalizing some details, I made them available in my online shop. I called these the Full Life Cube Planning Pages. It has a view of the year, month, week and the day. So, there are four main pages. It’s downloadable. These are designed to be perpetual planning pages so people can use them year after year. They are actually more than just the usual planner because, with the planning pages, you acquire a system… a success system that I had been living out for decades. That system includes aligning your goals with your top priorities in your life and your life purpose. That system includes taking stock of your different roles in life and planning your goals based on your key roles and the key persons in your life. That system includes planning how you’d use your time daily, weekly, monthly and your year with all these in consideration. You can buy it as a set or per page (year view, month view, week view or day view). But they are best used as a set, although you would still do well if you use just the weekly or daily planning pages. You also save money if you buy the set instead of buying per page.

I’d love to share more strategies and tips on goal-setting but this post would become a book if I keep going. I’d rather give a workshop on the topic to help you more. Leave me a comment or send me an email (teresa@fulllifecube.com or teresa@handsonparentwhileearning.com) if you are interested in attending a goal-setting workshop with me.