Achieve Your Goals in 2016
Over the last two to three weeks, my inbox has been flooded with people wanting to help me achieve my goals for 2016. Michael Hyatt wants me to have my Best Year Ever. Todd Herman wants me to achieve my business growth using his 90 Day Year course. And Lisa Nichols wants me to welcome in 2016 taking part in The I Am My Own Rescue Challenge #IAMOR, which began on December 16, 2015.
That is all fine and good to want to help me plan for the year ahead, but before I go making plans for next year, I first want to bask in the afterglow of this year. I am going to ride this high for a little bit longer by reflecting on what I was able to accomplish and carving out key lessons that I learned throughout the year. It is from those lessons that I will structure my plans for the new year. That requires a year in review.
2015 in Review
Take a trip back through the year. How did it look? Whether you liked your outcomes or not, jot down the lessons that you learned. Use those to think about how you will use those lessons for achieving your goals for next year. As for me, some of what I was able to accomplish was planned and some happened as I became more confident as I grew personally.
I started the year with the launch of this blog. It went live on January 25, 2015. A year after starting my weight loss journey, in July of 2014, I lost 75 pounds. On October 1, 2015 I launched my speaking website, pamelaburke.com. That was not a planned goal coming into this year. It most certainly was on the radar, but it was not planned. Lastly, I embarked upon another unplanned goal five days after the launch of my speaking website. I started the process of writing a book. The book helps those who are struggling to eat their way to a lifetime of weight loss by showing them where to place their focus.
Much can be attributed to what I was able to accomplish this year; my faith, support of my spouse, the instruction from my personal trainer, and each person that reads this blog, but one thing in particular sticks out the most.
How to Confidently Achieve Your Goals
I was reminded of what that was during brunch with friends. We were discussing why we are driven to do what we do. One of my friends offered this: “When I get an idea in my head, I tell people what I am thinking. As soon as I tell somebody, that means that I have do what I said I was going to do. I now have to be held accountable to that.”
There you have it. Being held accountable is what I got the most out of this year. Without accountability none of what I shared above would have been possible. All the faith in the world would not have done a thing without taking action. My actions were propelled by being held accountable to others and to myself.
No matter your goal for now or heading into 2016, if there is one thing that you can do in order to help you be successful in achieving your goals, it is by being held accountable to your goals.
As I slowly wind down from my natural high, over the next three blog posts I am going to help you get started with successfully completing your goals by sharing with you what I learned about accountability.
In this blog post I start the conversation with recommending that you speak your goals into existence. Over the next two weeks I will focus on accountability partners. Next week I will share who makes for poor accountability partners. Conversely, in the final blog post I will discuss who makes for good accountability partners. Let's get started.
Speak Your Goals into Existence
Say what it is that you want achieve out loud: Yes, I am recommending that you talk to yourself. I find it quite therapeutic. I think one of the best ways to make certain to not achieve a goal is to keep it to yourself.
It is true that when you keep what it is that you want to accomplish to yourself you do not have to worry about letting anyone down. You may let yourself down, but you believe you can live with only letting yourself down. Or can you? I know I can't.
I have found that when I held in what I wanted to do, in the long run, I felt worse. I felt more like I was not getting to where I wanted to be. Sometimes I even felt overwhelmed. That is why I recommend saying what you want to achieve out loud. After you say it out loud for yourself, it is time to share what you desire to do with others.
Tell someone else what it is that you want to achieve: It may seem scary because as soon as you tell someone else what you want to achieve you feel a sense of “Ok, well darn, now I have to this.” That is the point and the power of being held accountable. Telling someone else what it is that you want to accomplish gives you that push you need to get moving and to keep moving.
Well, that is the case if you are sure to share what you desire to do with the right people. You must be sure that you don't tell just any ‘ol body. You have to tell people who will hold you accountable. The who not to tell and the who to tell comes over the next two posts.
Start the Discussion: What did you accomplish, where did fall short, and what lessons did you learn throughout 2015? What will you take from that into 2016? Share your comments in the post, on Facebook or Twitter.