Well, if you are reading this blog you are still breathing and you’ve been fortunate to witness another year. Some of us have already evaluated last year’s goals and have a good idea of our top initiatives for the new year. I sat down with my family over the holidays and gave an overview of our agenda for “goals” meeting. My kids really did not look very enthusiastic and their body language clearly yelled, let’s get it over. So I had to spice it up and shift them into a more productive mindset. So I decided to spare them a dissertation of my SMART Goals template and jump right into our family goals. I kept it real simple. We had a total of ten major family goals, three banner goals, and one goal that will make a significant change in our lives. Some of the goals are daily or weekly (tactical) and some are more strategic such as vacations, GPA and growth. My kids actually like to read so we started off with our reading list and made our way to vacations to maintain momentum. We really needed to press through the first barrier to get our goals on paper. We had a great session, however, that’s the easy part. Now it’s time to execute! We recognized that we did not complete all of the goals last year; nevertheless, we learned through our failures. If we stay in the proper mindset we will maintain the required perseverance to keep moving forward.
Where the mind goes the body follows:
1. Beware of the Defeatist Mindset – The evaluation of your last year’s goals may depress or inspire us. If we start to lean towards the defeatist attitude we may give up before we get started. We need to meditate to overcome that initial thought before it becomes a pattern of thinking.
2. Procrastination Mindset – If we don’t set our goals in the beginning of the year we may rationalize (rational -lies) why we decided to wait until June to start the process. June may work for one goal, but what happens to the other goals on our list?
3. “It’s too late” Mindset – A cool wise man once told me that it’s never too late to set goals. We are only human, so if procrastination sets in for a short or extended period of time, don’t give up! If you wake up in the morning and you are able to take a breath… you can still reach your goals.
You are the leader so you are being watched. People are depending on you to lead them. Have the audacity to lead with tenacity! Get in the right mindset to set your goals now.
“Discipline is the bridge between goals and accomplishment.” -Jim Rohn
