At the beginning of this year I talked about New Year’s Resolutions – you can read the blog here. I wanted to show you that traditional and fixed resolutions often set us up for failure, and a better way to make changes is often to adapt a brand theme, or an attitude to stay true to.
It’s now March, and a lot of you might be struggling to stick with the plans and goals that you set for yourself at the beginning of the year. Life has a tricky habit of getting in the way when we need to commit and buckle down, but there is always a way! I’m here to offer you my top tip to help you stay on track with your goals.
The key to sticking with your brand theme, or the goal you’ve set yourself is to make it visible and tangible. If you have a theme, connect it to an objective, project or an idea that you would like to see yourself complete or fulfil. Make your goal real, set a timeframe for achieving it, and celebrate when you do.
Reaching your goal is all about connecting it to your theme, because this will define how you act to achieve it. Let’s say that your theme is fearless tenacity, and you want to make 2015 the year of fearlessness and bravery, pushing yourself beyond the norm. Accomplishing this becomes all about doing things that are outside your comfort zone, planning and then doing things that show you are brave enough to try new things, brave enough to achieve.
Here are my three tactics for achieving your goals, which are especially helpful if you’ve hit a rough patch along the way:
- Celebrate the intent, not just the outcome.
- Make a big deal of the smallest achievements, not just the big ones.
- Each week, make a list of what you’ve done to support your end objective, and look at it as a compounding of small things bringing you one step closer to a accomplishing your ultimate goal.
At the end of the day it’s all about visibility – it could be as simple as just writing the words or taking a photo and having them in front of you every day – but make your goals visible to yourself, so that you won’t forget the path you wish to travel.
Are you clear about the theme you have adopted this year?
