The beginning of the new year is always full of enthusiasm and commitment for change and transformation. But good intentions and desires often get derailed with the passing of time. Old patterns and habits sneak in and sabotage well-meaning efforts.
Here are three easy tips I have found to keep your intentions on track to make your desired goals a reality.
1. Take Baby Steps.
There’s an old saying, “How do you eat an elephant?” The answer, “One bite at a time.” The same is true with achieving goals. The number one derailment to achieving goals is that your goal is too big. Now I’m not saying don’t have big goals. Big dreams need big goals to achieve them. But once you have your big goal in mind, break it down into tiny bite size achievable goals.
For example, if your goal is to lose 30 lbs; then focus on losing 1 lb and repeat that goal 30 times until you’ve reached your 30 lb weight loss goal. Striving to lose 1 lb is a lot easier than trying to lose 30 lbs. By taking baby steps you are more likely to achieve your goal, and less likely to get derailed by overwhelm, frustration, and lack of seeing immediate results.
2. Create Habits That Support Your Goals.
Habits create success, and all successful people follow habits, or daily routines, that support the end results they want to have in their life. Creating daily routines and rituals comprised of baby step actions form habits, these give you clear action steps to focus on and repeat to help you successfully achieve your goal.
So if your goal is to lose 30 lbs, you might develop the habit of exercising 20 minutes every day, or the habit of eating salad with your dinner, or drinking water instead of soda. These habits are all baby step actions that will help you to achieve your ultimate goal of losing 30 lbs.
3. Visualize Success.
Use your imagination to visually imagine yourself achieving your desired goal. Goal imagery helps you to imagine, feel, and mentally experience yourself achieving the end result you desire. You can also use it to help determine what your baby steps and habits should be as you imagine yourself going from where you are now to where you want to be. This powerful practice communicates to your brain and body this is who I want to be and what I want to achieve, helping you to create the habits, thoughts, and actions that will lead you to successfully accomplishing your goal.
So if your goal is to lose 30 lbs you could imagine yourself exercising, eating well and feeling good about yourself. You could visualize yourself 30 lbs slimmer and experience how that would feel and how your life would be different when you’ve achieved your goal. Visualizing your progress and achievement of your goal helps the goal to stay achievable in your mind keeping you committed and motivated to succeed.
By following these three simple guidelines you can make this year the year you achieve all of your New Year’s resolutions.
If losing weight is on your New Year’s list of resolutions I invite you to get additional tips by joining me in attending my Free Teleseminar: “3 Common Dangers Even Smart Professional Women Face That Keep Them Struggling With Unwanted Weight Gain”.
In this free course you will discover three common dangers that are packing on the pounds and keeping you from releasing your unwanted weight, and time efficient solutions and strategies for resolving them.
Click here to learn more and register
Make 2014 the year you achieve all of your goals!
Carolyn Almendarez
Flickr photo by Alan Cleaver
Katrina
I love the simplicity you share in losing weight. I never thought of just losing 1 lb at a time to achieve my goal. I am going to have to keep that in mind.
Great post and I am sharing it with my fans. I know they will find value in this post.
Fiona Maclean
great advice – three very sensible tips that seem totally logical but that we forget all too easily
ManjiriK
Very nicely explained and I also beileve that to achieve any ONE big goal we must break it down into smaller achieveable goals. Good Post, Cheers!
Juli
I just set some achievable goals for myself that are what I believe to be bite sized chunks. Thank you for confirming that I am on the right track. 🙂
Carolyn Almendarez
Good for you!! 🙂
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