It's 2015! Dare I admit that I'm not a person who gets very excited about celebrating the end of one year and the start of another? Quite the opposite in fact, it just upsets me that another year is gone again, that time is rolling on, yada yada... With an attitude like this, I hear you thinking, no wonder I'm in the predicament of leading a boring life in the first place. I couldn't agree with you more. In my defence I must say that this year on NYE I was a bit jetlagged having just returned from a holiday in Mexico (!!! see, I can do exciting stuff! More about it in my next post.) two days earlier so I was tired and, gulp, in bed before midnight. The only fireworks I saw were on telly.
I do find that a calendar year is an excellent unit for setting goals though so that is one thing I like about the start of a new year; setting new goals to achieve in the year ahead. I don't like calling them resolutions because everyone knows that by February most people have abandoned their New Year's resolutions and some can't even remember what they were to begin with.
Not me, however. No siree! I have a list of goals, some big ones, some massive ones, some small ones, that I've at first brainstormed and then carefully considered. I usually start the process at Christmas time when I have time off to chill. I let ideas brew in my head for a while, days, maybe even a couple of weeks, before I start writing things down. The result is The List of Goals. This time (as last year) I typed it and I have it as my desktop wallpaper on my laptop. That way I see my goals every time I switch on my laptop which is nearly daily and am constantly reminded what it is I'm working towards this year.
Some of the goals on my 2015 list are:
When the list is finished it's time to contact my accountability partner and swap lists with her, talk the goals over with her, and start setting smaller goals on the road to achieving the bigger goals. My accountability partner is a friend and every couple of weeks we speak on the phone, reporting to each other how we've done and setting new goals for the next call. We used to do this face to face over a pizza but she doesn't live in London anymore so we do it on the phone. I preferred the pizza but hey, what can you do.
Pizza or no pizza, that's the exciting part of the process; sharing your goals with someone who doesn't laugh at them even if they're more like a utopian dream than something that can be achieved in a year but believes that they're achievable if I just put my heart to it. When somebody spurs you on and believes in you it's incredibly motivating and inspiring.
This year we were a bit worried that we hadn't held each other very accountable to our goals in the past and that maybe we could improve this side of the process a little bit. We decided to create a Facebook group page just for the two of us and post our goals there along with other related items. It turned out to be a brilliant idea because we can post images of our achievements there, inspirational quotes, videos, pictures, whatever, and we'll also be posting there when we've done the tasks we gave ourselves. What a great tool and it's all free!
How did I do with my 2014 goals, you may wonder. Well, I achieved half of them. I could've done a lot better, I know, but also a lot worse. And at least this way I'm a whole lot more focused on what I want to achieve in my life. And I speak to my friend often and our phone calls make me feel super motivated to keep on going. And we have fun together.
Set some exciting goals for yourself for this year and see where you get by the end of December. Go on, I urge you.
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| Image: Happy New Year! by Swallowtail Garden Seeds on Flickr |
I do find that a calendar year is an excellent unit for setting goals though so that is one thing I like about the start of a new year; setting new goals to achieve in the year ahead. I don't like calling them resolutions because everyone knows that by February most people have abandoned their New Year's resolutions and some can't even remember what they were to begin with.
Not me, however. No siree! I have a list of goals, some big ones, some massive ones, some small ones, that I've at first brainstormed and then carefully considered. I usually start the process at Christmas time when I have time off to chill. I let ideas brew in my head for a while, days, maybe even a couple of weeks, before I start writing things down. The result is The List of Goals. This time (as last year) I typed it and I have it as my desktop wallpaper on my laptop. That way I see my goals every time I switch on my laptop which is nearly daily and am constantly reminded what it is I'm working towards this year.
Some of the goals on my 2015 list are:
- buy my first property
- go to the cinema at least once a month
- start a new sewing project every other month starting in February
- get a new job
- do something every day that I'm really pleased about
When the list is finished it's time to contact my accountability partner and swap lists with her, talk the goals over with her, and start setting smaller goals on the road to achieving the bigger goals. My accountability partner is a friend and every couple of weeks we speak on the phone, reporting to each other how we've done and setting new goals for the next call. We used to do this face to face over a pizza but she doesn't live in London anymore so we do it on the phone. I preferred the pizza but hey, what can you do.
Pizza or no pizza, that's the exciting part of the process; sharing your goals with someone who doesn't laugh at them even if they're more like a utopian dream than something that can be achieved in a year but believes that they're achievable if I just put my heart to it. When somebody spurs you on and believes in you it's incredibly motivating and inspiring.
This year we were a bit worried that we hadn't held each other very accountable to our goals in the past and that maybe we could improve this side of the process a little bit. We decided to create a Facebook group page just for the two of us and post our goals there along with other related items. It turned out to be a brilliant idea because we can post images of our achievements there, inspirational quotes, videos, pictures, whatever, and we'll also be posting there when we've done the tasks we gave ourselves. What a great tool and it's all free!
 |
| One of my goals this year is to go to the cinema at least once a month. I used to go quite often but not so lately. It'll be an easy goal to achieve and something really enjoyable! Who needs the sunshine?! (Erm... me?) Image: Cinema Advertising by James Nash on Flickr |
How did I do with my 2014 goals, you may wonder. Well, I achieved half of them. I could've done a lot better, I know, but also a lot worse. And at least this way I'm a whole lot more focused on what I want to achieve in my life. And I speak to my friend often and our phone calls make me feel super motivated to keep on going. And we have fun together.
Set some exciting goals for yourself for this year and see where you get by the end of December. Go on, I urge you.
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