Did you already make your New Year’s resolutions? Years ago I hated this question and was like “I don’t know, leave me alone… why do I even need to have one?”. Of course, I only said it in my head and often responded with the typical things like eating more healthy stuff or doing more exercise but did not actually mean it. So do we really need goals for the new year? In my opinion, it should be an important part of our life to set goals and work on them in order to keep growing personally and also to keep life interesting. Working towards a goal can help us to feel fulfilled and happy. Do you need to set the goals specifically in January? Of course not! But in case you want to start now, this blog series might be helpful 😉
If you are a bit like me and struggling to actually define (or decide on) a goal then I can assure you that we are not alone. Many people feel the same way but the good news is that there are some exercises that we can do to get clarity! 🙂
Ready? For this exercise, I would recommend grabbing a piece of paper and writing down your thoughts. First of all, I want you to imagine a world where everything is possible, you can accomplish everything you want, neither time nor money plays a role, and you are not afraid of anything…
1. In this perfect world, complete the following sentence:
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if…”
Really allow yourself to be creative and write down everything that comes into your mind. Doesn’t matter if it seems unrealistic or stupid, just write it all down!
For example:
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if I had 1000 followers on Instagram”
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if I had a dog”
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if I spoke Italian”
2. Great! Once you wrote down your thoughts, go a bit deeper and ask yourself WHY it would be amazing! (If you had more than 3, then only choose 2-3 ideas and work on them).
For example:
“Wouldn’t it be amazing if I had a dog” → WHY? → “Because then I would have someone to go for a walk with”
3. Go even deeper and ask again WHY, and again,…
….“Because then I would have someone to go for a walk with” → WHY? → “Dogs love going for walks as I do and I don’t want to go alone” etc.
What I love about this exercise is that, at this point, you will know what really excites you and what was just “a nice thought” but not really a goal.
If you can, please choose one of the goals that you defined for yourself, to continue this exercise.
Now I would ask you if you already had any past attempts at reaching that one goal? If so, what happened, why did you fail? I know it’s hard, but try to be honest with yourself <3
Perfect! As you now know what did NOT work, try to think about strategies that might actually! If you don’t know it yet then do some research! Google it, ask a friend how they did it, or what they wish they knew before, etc.
I hope you found these tips helpful to define a goal and you are already doing your research on how to actually work towards it! Next week will be all about creating a strategy that will make it easier for you to stick to the plan.
See you next week!
Much love,
Claudia <3
Photo by Raphael Lovaski on Unsplash
