The Secret to Goal Setting

You know the feeling when you are stoked for the New Year? You're full of inspiration, motivation and enthusiasm. You tell yourself, "This year WILL be different." It’s going to be the year you climb out of credit card debt, fall in love and finally reach your ideal weight.This is YOUR year and it’ll be like no other. You know it!Then, the end of January rolls around and you’re back to your usual ways - going to happy hour instead of the gym, staying home instead of putting yourself out there and going on a blind date. Indulging in retail therapy and getting yourself further into debt. Suddenly you feel like shit that you didn’t stick to your resolutions, yet again!The inspiration, motivation and kick-ass mentality that you were feeling a few weeks ago is gone, gone, gone!

You are not alone.

The sad truth is that we set ourselves up for failure before we even begin.

We set unrealistic goals and try to accomplish too many new goals in a short period of time. Instead of spending time mastering one goal, we spread our effort & energy over several goals and end up giving nothing 100% of our devoted attention. This makes us unfocused, uncommitted and is a recipe for failure.Accomplishing goals and creating new habits takes time and dedication. We live in a society in which everything we want is at the tip of our fingers and if we don’t see immediate results we throw in the towel.Lasting change takes times and the model for resolutions is flawed.  We think more is better so we set a dozen resolutions and half ass them all.

I'm offering a different approach; one that is designed to help you succeed.

One goal every 3 months.

That’s only 4 goals (or habits) a year, but you’re devoting three months to each one. Doing it this way gives yourself the time to truly make everlasting shifts in your life.It’s about taking the time to implement a system that works for you. To study it closely getting rid of what doesn’t work, keeping what does and continuing to build on that.Say one of your resolutions is to get an exercise routine in place and every January you set a similar resolution, but have never followed through. You’ve spent a ton of money on gym memberships, but dislike going to the gym. Reward systems don’t seem to work for you and you’re the queen of excuses.Dedicating three months to getting an exercise routine in place allows you the space and time to devote all your energy to this one resolution. You have the time to dive into what’s holding you back, to try new things and find workouts you enjoy and to dissect what works and what doesn’t.Don’t expect perfection right out the gate. Developing new habits takes time. Three months allows you the time for trial and error and to build a solid foundation of things that work for you. Give it a try.Also, when trying new things our inner gremlins, saboteurs and demons like to come out and play. They often hold us back from doing the things we really want to do and excuses are probably rooted in one of them. I’ve written a post about how to deal with them here.Let me know below what goal you’re choosing to work on for the next three months. I’d love to be your cheerleader supporting you through making everlasting positive transformation.

Cheers to creating everlasting change,

XO, emily

 P.S. FUN TIP! Change your password to represent the goal you’re working on. This will help keep it at the forefront of your mind and connected to it throughout each day.For example, if your goal is to get a workout routine in place, a password could be a, “I love to workout”.