A Guide to Achieving Your Goals

Christmas is right around the corner! Are you ready?! We're less than a week away so I hope your gifts are wrapped, decorations are up, and grocery shopping is done! But even more exciting is the start of a new year! Have you ever wished that the upcoming year was your best year ever? Or looked back on your current year and been disappointed that it didn't bring you more accomplishments or joy? Well that's about to change! We are going to do the work right now to make 2018 your best year ever!

Goal Setting Done Right

Goals are more than a New Years Resolution. In fact, the majority of those resolutions are forgotten in just a few short weeks. But there is a way to guarantee you'll achieve your goals this year! So how?

1. Evaluate your values

Take a moment to think about the main areas of your life and give it a rating from 0-10 on how happy you are with your current situation.

• Finances
• Spouse / Significant Other
• Family
• Friends
• Home
• Career
• Physical Health
• Emotional Health (including self-care)
• Faith / Spiritual Relationship
• Personal Growth

2. Match your goals to your values

Identify the 3-5 values (from step 1) that had the lowest scores. Now focus your goals on improving these areas. Keep in mind that these are goals you want to achieve in the next 12 months! It's easy to say "I want to be debt free" but is it feasible for you to achieve that in 12 months? If not, then put that goal on your vision board, then evaluate how much debt you could pay off this year and make that your goal!

3. Make your goals SMART

Most of you probably know that I'm using SMART as an acronym. Your goals must be Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Realistic, and Timely. As an added bonus, make sure to word your goal as if you've already achieved it!

For example: I paid off my $20,000 car loan in October 2018.

4.  Reverse engineer your top 3-5 goals

Take your top 3-5 goals and reverse engineer them. Here's what I mean: what do you need to do to achieve your goals? Focusing on one goal at a time, write down every possible thing you can think of that you'll need to do to achieve it. Don't worry about thinking of every single task - you can get caught up in analysis paralysis! This is a living list that can be added to over time as you think of additional items that need done to accomplish your goal.

5. Set 90 days goals

Now that you have your task list, rearrange it into the order you want to accomplish them. You will want to identify milestones that you can use as a target to achieve in 90 days increments. So you should have a 90-day goal for each of your 3-5 top goals for the year. (Some of your goals may take less than a year to complete. That is awesome! Just move to the next goal on your list of 10.)

Check out my next article (A Guide to Achieving Your Goals: The Rest of the Story) to find out how to make the magic of your 90 day goals come to life!

Get Personal Coaching for achieving your goals

If you're interested in 1-on-1 coaching for achieving your goals, I will be opening up a few spots in 2018. Sign up below to get your name on the list and you will receive all the details when this personal coaching session opens.

I hope you have a blessed Christmas and safe travels!

~Jill