Helping You Stick to Your Goals in 2020
Your advanced goal-setting starts here. By now you’ve probably decided on your goals for 2020 – if not, go here for your FREE Lifestyle Review where I lead you though an 8 step process to create your vision for 2020, including what you want and how you want to feel (the most important element).
I’m going to assume you know what the SMART acronym means and that your goal-setting adheres to it. What I’m writing here builds on those basics, and is more advanced and will require of you an open mind. Are you ready?
1. Write your specific goals down – everywhere!
It sounds so simple but you would not believe how many people say they have specific goals but don’t write them down anywhere. Or they do write their goals down on paper but then forget about it, or leave it written in a note-pad never to be read again, or even create a beautiful vision board that gathers dust or is hidden in a drawer. Once you’ve written down your goals, try one or all of these methods, and give yourself permission to have a lot of fun with it…
Stick post-it notes all over your home
Write it on paper or a small piece of card you can keep in your purse or handbag
Change your passwords so you have to type it in several times a day
Write it in the steamed up shower panel every morning
Set reminders daily in your phone to alert you. Name the reminders with your goals.
2. Visualise having achieved your goal
Your mind is a natural story-teller. It loves conjuring up images. This is a good thing (unless you’re a day-dreamer) because our mind is also really good at attaching meaning and emotions to these images – they become stories. By connecting to your imagination you can allow your mind to create images of whatever success looks and feels like to you. Time yourself for a 5 minute session where you will just sit and breathe (I’d use the word meditate, but not everyone enjoys that). Conjure images of your success – How do you look? Where are you? What can you hear and see? Who is with you? Go into as much detail as possible while in a meditative state, and then hold this strong image in your mind’s eye, recalling it whenever you feel like giving up or are tempted to self-sabotage.
3. Write to your future self
…congratulating yourself on your success so far. Seal it in an envelope, self-address it, make a dairy appointment reminder to post it to yourself in a few months time. This process sets you up for success and allows you to celebrate every small step you’ve taken within the past few months since January. Alternatively, you could write yourself a letter of deep encouragement and support. I do this exercise on all of my Stop Self-Sabotaging Hideaway events (one-day events for women in London, Manchester, and Shropshire)
4. Shut that sh*t down! – tame your Inner Critic
Easy to say right?! Well, okay, I actually mean that you should try to befriend your Inner Critic. I’m not a fan of hiding from, or trying to ignore, banish or slay your self-critical voice, because doing so actually gives it even more power to destroy your motivation. Instead you have to learn to Tame Your Inner Critic (click the link to join my next live round of the free 5-day challenge I run). Turning towards your Inner Critic is the best and only way to move it out of your way.
5. Find your cheerleaders
Find people who you can share your goals with, who will support and encourage you. This may not be your partner or best friend – with the best will in the world they aren’t impartial or objective. As much as they want to support you, they will also want to share their opinions.
This can be unhelpful to you for a number of reasons:
(a) they are not your target audience, and can’t possibly understand your business goals as well as you do
(b) you may prefer to dream big, and they just don’t have your capacity for imagination
(c) they might get bogged down in the details and expect you to know how you will manifest your goals, whereas you may not have the answers to that at this stage, and
(d) there’s always a small chance that you’ll accidentally trigger something in them which makes it more difficult to wholeheartedly support you.
Your Deserve Great Things
The most successful people I work with do ALL of the these five things. No compromises! And yes, of course I use these hacks myself. We have to give ourselves every chance of success given how many uncontrollable forces there are out there. Remember, you really do deserve to have whatever it is you dare to dream.
ps. If you’re feeling brave, you could Tweet me @jsgbaker your goal and I’d RT to help you feel accountable for it 😉
You always have other options
1:1 Coaching with me
As you’ve seen above, I run free online courses and one day intensive events (in addition to my wonderful corporate work). I’m also a passionate, experienced psychologist and coach, with an intuitive and gently challenging style that gets quick results (usually within just three sessions). Use the button below if you’d like to book in a discovery session with me to find out how I might be able to help.
Face to Face Events
Would you like to stop self-sabotaging in 2020? All the details of my next one day Hideaways in London and Manchester are just here.