Photo Credit – Lori Sullivan

A new year starts full of possibility.

While we are still social distancing and many businesses remain closed, the new year holds the promise of achieving anything you set out to do. I lot of people (myself included) spend some time at the start of the year planning and thinking about what they want to accomplish in the year ahead. The five ideas below can help guide you on the path to your own personal growth and development in 2021.

1. Visualize “Year End You”

A simple way to think about your goals for the year is to visualize the state that you want to have accomplished by the end of 2021. You can think about filling in the following statement – “At the end of 2021, I want / will have completed / I will be / etc.”

You could consider thinking about year end you in the eight dimensions of wellness – financial, occupational, environmental, physical, emotional, intellectual, social and spiritual. How would you like each of these areas of your life to be different and better by the end of the year?

2. Set Goals

After you have visualized how you want to change this year, you can begin to set some concrete goals. You want to consider how you will determine if you were successful. Many people are fans of the SMART process for goals setting. The summary is to ensure your goals are Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, and Time bound.

Two types of goals that are popular are project goals “I want to complete X” and process goals “I want xx improvement”. Consider which type of goals you have and set the measurement accordingly. When I’m thinking about larger goals that will take time (the year to accomplish), I often spend some time thinking about how I could break them down into smaller, monthly goals that help make progress over time.

3. Adjust Habits

Many of our goals will be accomplished by making small adjustments to our habits. You might create daily habits like doing 10 minutes of exercise each day, reading for 30 minutes, or meditating each morning. These habits can be tracked over time with a goal to keep a streak going. There are some great apps out there for tracking streaks – just search in the App Store.

Habits don’t have to be daily. You can set them for every week or every month. This will help keep you on track for goals that require consistency, but not daily engagement. Financial goals can often fall in this category. For example, “every week, pay bills and handle paperwork” and “every month summarize spending by category”.

4. Choose a Word of Intention

The last six years, I have looked across all my goals and chosen a word that would guide me as inspiration to keep on track throughout the year. Examples of some of my words across the years includes mindful, create, joyful and edit. While this can be a bit tricky to select at the start of the year, the focus it provides to get and keep you on track is well worth the time and consideration.

After I select my word, I tend to head to Etsy and find a piece of jewelry, stone, or image to purchase with my word. Having the word with me in a physical way each day brings focus to the forefront at all times.

5. Just Start

While the first four ideas can be helpful, what is more important is to start. You will never achieve the goals and personal development you are seeking unless you dive in and start making progress. At times it will be messy and possibly seem like you are moving backward instead of forward. However, if you just keep at it, you will find yourself looking back on the year extremely proud of all you have accomplished.

Summary

There is no perfect, right way to set intentions for the year – you need to find the path that works for you. I hope that a few of the steps in this post resonate with you and set you on the path to a successful year in 2021. While our lives may still not be what we consider “normal”, that is no reason to postpone progress toward our goals.

Cheers to the New Year!!