HOW TO SEIZE THE YEAR 2021

 

HOW TO SEIZE THE YEAR 2021. 2020 is finally over and that means that 2021 is here, it’s time fora new year and a goal setting session, this article will show you how to set goals to set yourself up for a successful year ahead.

Before we go ahead, you want to take the time to take a look back on 2020 and see how far you came, where you are now, and the lessons you learned from 2020. Before you decide where you want to go, you want to know where you are first.

Write down and answer the following questions:

What changed in your life?

How did you change?

How are you different now than you were a year ago?

What were your results?

What were your goals and how far did you get in meeting them?

These are facts.

What were your wins?

What were your failures?

What did you love most about 2020?

What challenges did you face?

What needs to change?

What will you do to make sure the challenges you faced in 2020 will be better handled in 2021?

What is your strategy going to be?

What have you leave behind in 2020?

What will you continue to bring in 2021?

Evaluate Your Life   

You want to take a look at the results you have in your life now. These are facts. This is neutral. Take a look at all the areas in your life and write down your results in each area.

Remember that honest awareness is the first step towards change.

Consider these areas you need to set goals in:

1.     Relationships/family

2.     Finances

3.     Career/Business

4.     Home/Environment

5.     Spiritual/Personal Development

6.     Health

7.     Fun and recreation

8.     Service and volunteer work 

Now, let’s get down to setting a goal for 2021!

Before we get started, choose a word for the year of 2021.

It can be anything you want to direct your focus and goal in 2021. Examples are bold, courage, freedom, focus, inspire, thrive, balance, simplify.

What is your number 1 goal for 2021?

When you are setting goal for the year, it’s ideal to focus on one big main goal. Setting too many goals leads to overwhelm and a lack of focus which causes no goals to be met.

 Set Smart Goals

When setting a goal, you want to make sure your goal is SMART.

S – Specific

You don’t want to set vague goals. That’s not helpful and won’t guide you much. Make sure your goals are specific and actionable.

M – Measurable

You want to make sure you can measure and track your progress for your goal. You’ll also know when you have achieved your goal if it’s measurable. Provide a way to evaluate your goal.

A – Attainable

You want your goal to be possible. It should be challenging, but attainable within your scope of power and given the time frame of one year.

R – Relevant

Your goal should make sense. It should be a goal that you want to achieve and will improve your life in some way.

T – Time bound

You want your goal to have a deadline. In this case, if you’re setting a one-year goal for the year of 2021, your deadline should be December 31, 2021 or January 1, 2021, give or take.

Include actionable steps in your goal. For example: By December 31, 2021, I want to save x amount of money by saving x amount of money a week or a month.

Articulate Your Why

What’s your why? Why did you set this goal?

Go deep. Keep asking yourself why. You want to have a deep, inner, strong reason. The stronger your why, the better.

This helps you find motivation and keeps you going when things get hard.

You want to connect to your goal both intellectually and emotionally.

You have to love your why. Love your reason for achieving your goal. It should get you excited.

Once you uncover your why, include it in your goal. “I want to achieve my goal because…”

 

Implementing Supportive Habits

Now, you want to implement supportive habits and incorporate useful behaviour to achieve your goal.

Write down and answer the following questions:

·         Who do you need to become to achieve your one year goal?

·         How do you need to show up?

·         What kind of thoughts, feelings, and mind-set should you have?

·         What needs to change?

·         What habits should you implement?

·         What routines should be created?

 

Make a list of habits, routines, and behaviours that need to be implemented for you to achieve your goal.

It’s incredibly important to set up habits because you want to rely on habits instead of motivation. Setting a goal is just the first step to reaching your goal. Habits are what lead you to reaching your goal.

Take a moment to channel and embody your future self. Journal about your future self and get to know them. What do they do? What are they like?

Make a list of things you need to take out. Bad habits, bad behaviours, people, etc. This should include internal and external things.

Make a list of things you want to bring into your life (more). Again, this should include both internal and external things.

Break Up Your Goals

You’re going to take your big one year goal and break it up.

First you’re going to break your goal into quarter goals. So for every 90 days, choose a goal or outcome that you want to focus on.

Next you’re going to break up your quarter goals into mini monthly goals.

Breaking up your goals into smaller goals will actually help you with not only reaching goals, but setting them as well. Goal setting is an interactive skill. The more you set goals, the better at them you’ll get. 

If you don’t know, set a goal to figure that out as your first monthly goal. Commit to decide. Do whatever you have to do. Research. Brainstorm. Ask yourself questions. Meditate or sleep on it. Figure it out.

The farther you go out into the year, the less specific you’ll likely get. That’s okay. So do your best to take a guess. Estimate what you’d like your goal to be and focus to be on. 

Circumstances change. Life is unpredictable. You want to be adaptable and flexible to handle what life throws at you during the year.

Create a Massive Action List

Make a massive action list. Be very specific. Write every single thing you’d like to get done. This should be a huge list with 50-100 action steps. Remember if you don’t know, do some research and figure it out. Write as many as you can.

Now you’re going to organize your action steps in chronological order. You’re going to create your master plan. This is what turns your goal into an action plan.

It may be tedious, but it is so worth it. After doing this, all you need to do is show up. Then you’re going to add these actions to your calendar.

You want to be taking some sort of action every single day that will move you towards your goal. Just a few minutes a day is better than zero minutes a day. You want to be moving forward and taking baby steps at least.

For the first month, you’re going to set up your weekly to-dos for the month of January. Going forward, you’re going to want to fill your calendar in 1 to 2-week increments. 

Once you’ve filled your calendar with at least the immediate action steps for the first month of January or the first two weeks, you’re ready for the next step which is to do the work and just start.

 Tracking Your Goal

Spend 30 minutes at the end of every week to reflect and track your weekly progress for your annual goal. Analyse your efforts. Are you on track? What’s working? What needs to change?

Don’t be afraid to make changes. You want to be flexible and adaptable. 2020 definitely showed us this. Set up a system to measure and track your goals and habits whether it’s an app or journal. Have it ready before starting.

 Going Forward

Keep in mind that your goals will have problems. You should expect obstacles. Expect to experience failures. To limit further failure and backtrack, plan for obstacles ahead of time. When you plan for potential problems, you plan for solutions. Make a list of potential problems and obstacles. Follow each with a strategy to overcome and solve your problems.

Practice awareness of your weakness and threats. For example, if you already know you struggle with waking up early, prepare for this in advance. Have a strategy in place to avoid this problem.

When faced with problems and obstacles, avoid getting stuck. Learn from them. Be solution oriented. Fail forward. When you’re failing, you’re putting yourself out there.

“Everything is figureoutable.” — Marie Forleo

Tips for reaching your goal in 2021:

·         Keep your goal in front of you

·         Prioritize your goal every day

·         Take action every day

·         Stay in the right mind-set – be solution oriented

·         Weekly planning and reviews

·         Measure your progress

·         Stay focused

·         Keep going when things get hard

If you haven’t already, start working towards your goal NOW! There’s no reason to wait any further. Give yourself a head start by starting with very slight and minor changes. Start embarrassingly small.

When you start with sudden, big changes, you’re less likely to keep it up. So use the time you have now as a sort of mini practice session.

Congratulations on taking the first steps toward reaching your goal! Most people don’t even write down their big goals let alone take steps necessary to reach them.

Goal setting is the way to actively create your future and design your ideal life. The only way to predict your future is to create it.

Here’s to jump start your 2021 and end it with a bang or make it your best year ever!

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This article first appeared at REACHINGSELF