How to Achieve Your Goals for the New Year

With the New Year upon us many are thinking about their resolutions for 2016. It’s a time for letting go of the things that we may be holding onto that no longer serve us. At the same time, it’s also the perfect opportunity to bring in that which we do want and desire most.

Here are some great ways to set, achieve and maintain your goals for the new year:

Meditation. Meditation is a great prelude to setting your goals. Sit in a quiet spot and begin to breath deeply and fully. Just become aware of your breath. If other thoughts begin to arise, simply (without judgment) bring your awareness back to the breath. After a minute or so, ask yourself the 4 soul questions according to Deepak Chopra:

• Who am I?
• What is it that I truly want or desire?
• What is my purpose in life (can also be stated as ‘how can I serve?’)
• What am I grateful for? These questions are a great foundation and starting point for setting goals that are meaningful and worthwhile.

Write down your goals. After extensive research about what successful people do on a daily basis, there were a few similarities almost completely across the board – two of which were meditation and setting goals. Use a note-taking app like Evernote and don’t hold back.

• Try the train of thought exercise. Just write down what comes to your head without a filter. Don’t stop writing for about 5 minutes.
• Go through your list and prioritize. Choose 1 or 2 main goals for the year and what you would like to accomplish for the day, week, month, quarter and year.
• Be specific. Instead of writing down things that are vague like “I want to start a business”, try something more concrete like, “ I want to own a yoga studio that holds ‘x’ amount of classes per day with ‘x’ amount of students per class.” State the size of the studio and how many rooms would be in it. What forms of yoga will you teach? How many employees will you have? Do you sell merchandise? Do you have a website where you sell merchandise online? Do you have guest speakers and if so how often? What will they teach? How much revenue will you make in one year?...You get the point.

State your obstacles. Once you clearly know what your obstacles are, you can easily devise a plan to conquer them. Be realistic and list everything that could be holding you back from your goals. They can be external influences, but more often than not, they are internal beliefs that with a simple acknowledgement, can be shifted – opening you up to new possibilities, new perspectives, new ideas, and a whole new life.

Ask “How will I accomplish my goals?” What are the steps you need to take to make your dreams a reality? Make a list of all the avenues and connections you can go through to make it happen.

Share your goals (but only to those that support you wholeheartedly). Get feedback on your ideas. Ask your good friends and family for their suggestions. Ask them to hold you accountable and check in for updates on your path towards completion.

Believe it into existence. If you can ‘see’ it, you can ‘be’ it. Know that ANYTHING is possible and don’t let negative thinking or anything else get in your way.