For the past three years I’ve written a post about setting goals for the new year. In 2016 I encouraged you to set principles, not resolutions. The principles I outlined in that post ended up sticking and have become lifelong instead of year long. So then in 2017 I decided a mantra for the year would be the way to go. I added my principles in (and reading goal, of course) and was set. Then for 2018 we were on to making qualitative instead of quantitative resolutions.
And now for 2019…I’m sort of at a loss. As each year goes by I realize that there are less and less “unique” ways to go after your goals and it mostly comes back to basics: working hard, staying consistent, and doing the best you can on any given day. That said, let’s talk through how to identify what you want to work hard at and be consistent with.
Yearly recap
- When was I most proud of myself this past year?
- What is a moment I wish I could relive so I could respond in a different way?
- When did I feel most excited and alive?
- When did I feel most frustrated and stuck?
Figure out what to do more of and less of
It’s clear that I get a lot of satisfaction from leading the charge. At work that means when I can understand and find solutions to client problems, and in my downtime/personal time it means I need to seek out activities where I can present and be a leader. With work, I can continue to take on more responsibility as I’ll be doing in 2019, and in my personal life I am challenging myself to sign up for at least one class this year (acting, exercise/dancing, who knows what else, but I’ll find something).
On the flip side, I need focus on putting things in perspective and ensuring that I am not reacting to a situation that ultimately isn’t a big deal. The unknown can get most of us thrown off, but realizing that there are few situations that can’t be worked through (and remembering that fact in the moment) can help to reduce these feelings of frustration.
As I mentioned before, there’s little I can tell you that I haven’t already said before with going after your goals (you can check out some more posts here, here and here) and figuring out what those should be in the first place. With this two step reminder you can reset for 2019 and continue to refine the way you are achieving your dreams.
What are your goals for 2019? How do you like to determine what to focus on?
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